Bezant said Tuesday the project's mineral production sharing agreement had been renewed to April 2020, subject to customary conditions, such as stakeholder engagement and work programme commitments.  

The company previously sold its Choco platinum-gold project in Colombia to Auvert Mining for US$500,000 in April to focus on building value from its copper-gold assets, including Mankayan and the Eureka project in Argentina.

Bezant executive chairman Colin Bird said the renewal provided some certainty and time in which to complete project evaluation and planned enhancement work.

He said the project was "well-positioned in the global league table of potential future mining development projects", and Bezant should be able to add value through further work to enhance the existing resource and metal grades.

"We now intend to progress our work programme preparations and assess all aspects of the project in the short-term," he said.

Bezant CEO Laurence Read said stakeholder engagement would be a primary focus over the next two years while progressing Mankayan, with technical and community programmes to be rolled out to add value to the project.

He said this was in line with the Philippine government's strategy stating that "mining shall be pro-people and pro-environment in sustaining wealth creation and improved quality of life".

Bezant's shares rose 2.15% Tuesday to 0.47p (US0.62c).