BELL COPPER MOBILIZES FOR DRILLING & PROVIDES KABBA PROJECT UPDATE
News Release
Bell Copper Corporation - TSX.V Symbol: BCU
BELL COPPER MOBILIZES FOR DRILLING & PROVIDES KABBA PROJECT UPDATE
Bell Copper Corporation (“Bell Copper” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: BCU) is pleased to provide an update on developments at its 100% owned Kabba porphyry copper project located in Mohave County, Arizona, including news that the Company has mobilized for drilling on the Ovoid Target at the Kabba project.
Highlights:
- Mobilized for drilling of the Ovoid Target at Kabba
- Bell secures access and purchase option on private land
- Company modifies mineral land package
- Native copper identified in K-16
Mobilization for Drilling
Bell Copper has received a permit from the Arizona Department of Water Resources to complete its initial 2018 drilling, which will be focused on the Ovoid Target. As previously reported in the March 16, 2018 news release, the Company has secured access to private lands as part of the 2018 drilling and will be drilling this location initially. This approach has reduced permitting time by approximately two months. Bell intends to obtain permits for at least 2 additional drill sites on neighboring state lands.
Personnel, equipment and materials have been dispatched and preparation of the drill site and access road is underway. Brown Drilling of Kingman, Arizona will complete the precollar drilling followed by Godbe Drilling of Montrose, Colorado who will perform core drilling. It is anticipated that drilling will begin within the coming weeks.
Purchase Option
Further to the private land access reported in the March 16, 2018 news release, the Company reports that it has formalized the agreement with the owner of these private lands. This agreement contains an option for the Company to acquire all rights to the property.
Land Package Modification
The Company modified the boundaries of its leased mineral holdings at the Kabba project in order to capture the expected northeasterly extension of the Ovoid Target. Release of leased mineral acreage on the southwest margin of the Kabba property was approximately balanced through the addition of 640 acres of mineral rights along the northern border of the project. This modification brings the Company’s total mineral land package to approximately 12,840 acres (5200 hectares). No federal lands are included in the Kabba project area.
Geological Update
Sampling and panning of drill cuttings left at the K-16 drill site have revealed the presence of previously unrecognized native copper. The native copper grains were blackened by rod grease when panned and only became recognizable as copper after washing with brake cleaner. The native copper would have been drilled from the unassayed gravel and basalt in the hole (significant copper was not found in the assayed bedrock part of the hole), but in either case it would have originated from copper-bearing sulphide minerals in bedrock at a higher elevation to one side of K-16. Pictures available on the Company website www.bellcopper.net
At K-16, the Laramide bedrock surface is known to slope southwestward toward K-11, suggesting that copper-bearing bedrock is present northeast of K-16 in the Ovoid Target area. Chalcocite (copper sulphide) in K-11, native copper in K-16, and chrysocolla (copper silicate) in K-19 may all be products of supergene copper derived from a source area within the Ovoid Target. Bell’s current drilling is testing the center of this target.
Further analysis of lithological (rock type) data derived from the 2017 drilling programs adds weight to the Ovoid Target as the most likely hangingwall match with the area of intense stockwork quartz veins and alteration in the Kabba footwall. Rare rock types, including flow-banded rhyolite, diabase, and heterolithic breccia, have been found both in drill core and in outcrops 9 kilometers to the west-southwest, strongly supporting the Company’s fault model. That the abundance of these rare rock types is appropriately measured in parts per million indicates that the geological correlations are robust.
Company CEO Tim Marsh states “The two drilling programs in 2017 have gone a long way toward delimiting the Ovoid Target. With an impressive halo of pyrite, zinc and lead and supergene copper bleeding out into three nearby drillholes, the path toward discovery couldn’t be clearer. Any drilling success at K-20 will accrue fully to Bell’s shareholders.”
For an interview with Dr. Tim Marsh discussing this news, go to the URL below.
https://youtu.be/r_sEOY6qblA
About Bell Copper
Bell Copper is a mineral exploration company focused on the identification, exploration and discovery of large copper deposits located in a region responsible for 10% of the world's copper production: Arizona.
Kabba Porphyry Copper Project
A primary focus for Bell Copper is the ongoing exploration and development at the Kabba Porphyry Copper Project near Kingman, AZ, where we are pursuing the faulted-off top of a major porphyry copper system, the bottom of which is exposed in the foothills 8+ km west of the Company's property.
Qualified Person
The technical content of this release has been reviewed and approved by Timothy Marsh, PhD, PEng., the Company’s CEO and President. No mineral resource has yet been identified on the Kabba Project. There is no certainty that the present exploration effort will result in the identification of a mineral resource or that any mineral resource that might be discovered will prove to be economically recoverable.
On behalf of the Board of Directors of
Bell Copper Corporation
"Timothy Marsh"
Timothy Marsh, President, CEO & Director
For further information please contact the Company
Tel: 1 800 418 8250
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
