K-20 Drilling at Perseverance Supports Proximity to Copper Porphyry Deposit
News Release
Bell Copper Corporation - TSX.V Symbol: BCU
K-20 Drilling at Perseverance Supports Proximity to Copper Porphyry Deposit
VANCOUVER, B.C. - Bell Copper Corporation (“Bell Copper” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: BCU) is pleased to provide an update from the Perseverance porphyry copper project, located in northwestern Arizona, USA. The Perseverance project is under a Joint Venture with Cordoba Minerals Corp. (TSX-V:CDB; OTCQX:CDBMF).
Highlights
Drill hole K-20, a 2.1 km step-out from prior deep drilling at Perseverance, encountered the best mineralization to date indicating proximity to the targeted 2 km by 3 km Laramide porphyry buried beneath 200m to 400m of basin fill.
More than 700 meters of anomalous copper minerals were intercepted, comprising Chalcopyrite, Bornite, and Chalcocite, suggesting the porphyry target is proximal.
Quartz veins encountered in the lower part of K-20 are aligned 20 to 45 degrees to core axis. Approaches to properly orient these “guide veins”, using either a downhole acoustic televiewer or downhole induced polarization, are currently being evaluated prior to wedging and directionally advancing K-20.
High Power Exploration Inc. will deploy their proprietary Typhoon™ induced polarization technology to complete the mapping of shallow sulphide distribution left wide open by the prior optionee on the project, and to probe deeply beneath previous geophysical surveys and even beneath previous drillholes for overlooked copper porphyry targets.
K-20 Diamond Drill Hole
K-20 is the first hole drilled under the Perseverance Joint Venture Agreement between Cordoba and Bell Copper. The hole was pre-collared to a depth of approximately 300 metres before core drilling commenced in September 2018. The hole is being drilled vertically and is currently at a depth of approximately 1045 meters.
Initial observations of mineralization and geological structures encountered by drill hole K-20 are encouraging and suggest close proximity to a potential Laramide copper porphyry deposit. Beginning at a depth of approximately 300 metres K-20 passed through a long interval of largely propylitic alteration, epidote-chlorite with disseminated pyrite and minor chalcopyrite and bornite.
At approximately 1,030 metres deep, the drill core became more potassically altered with disseminated pyrite, chalcopyrite on a 1:1 ratio, with more frequent veins and quartz-molybdenite stringers. This was observed with an occurrence of hydrothermal magnetite filling fractures and veins and secondary biotite alteration. The appearance of potassic alteration with more frequent veins and quartz stringers suggests that K-20 has approached the higher temperature region of the porphyry system. Full assays are pending.
Figure 1*: Chalcopyrite veins partially replaced by bornite-chalcocite, 765 metres (top and 1029 metres (bottom).
Figure 2*: Photomicrographs of sulphide minerals from 1029 meters (field of view about 4 millimeters) showing intergrown pyrite and chalcopyrite, which is veined and rimmed by bornite (purple-brown), which in turn is rimmed by chalcocite (steely gray).
Figure 3*: Sheeted chalcopyrite veins (748 metres).
*Mineralization shown in above images is from selected intervals, and not necessarily representative or indicative of the mineralization hosted on the Perseverance property
Future Activities
The perceived proximity of long intervals of K-20 to a large porphyry copper deposit provides the opportunity to utilize directional drilling to avoid redrilling poorly consolidated and weathered cover rocks. In order to determine the optimal direction for wedging, plans have been made to use a downhole acoustic televiewer to image copper-bearing veins in the walls of the drillhole. Once the source direction of these veins has been determined, wedges can be used to turn the hole across the adjacent target. Because the interval of copper-bearing veinlets is so long in K-20, multiple deflections across the target volume are expected to be possible from the single K-20 parent hole.
Additionally, a downhole radial induced polarization survey, like those completed in drillholes K-6 and K-9, is being considered to confirm whether anomalous chargeable sulfide mineralization is present in the direction indicated by the downhole acoustic televiewer. By placing a source electrode deep into K-20, any chargeable sulphide mineralization within a kilometer or two of the drillhole could be detected.
High Power Exploration Inc. (“HPX”) proprietary Typhoon™ technology
The High Power Exploration Inc. (“HPX”) proprietary Typhoon™ technology will be coming to the site, to help extend geophysical coverage and image to greater depths than previous surveys.
Figure 4: Cross section looking northwest with projected IP anomaly, K-20 and past drilling shown. Noting that past drill holes K-13, 14, 18 and 19 were all stopped short of the anomaly in mineralization.
“K-20 demonstrates that all of the geological processes necessary to produce a porphyry copper deposit were operating at Perseverance while the dinosaurs were stomping around on the surface. Seeing these copper veinlets carrying minerals like chalcopyrite, bornite and chalcocite over such a long interval supports the idea that we are directly above or alongside a significant copper-rich body. The quartz-molybdenite veins in the current bottom of the hole do not typically wander far from the heart of a copper porphyry, so we are very close.” - Dr. Tim Marsh, Bell Copper President & CEO
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.
Perseverance Porphyry Copper Project
A primary focus for Bell Copper is the ongoing exploration and development at the Perseverance 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 Perseverance 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
Email: info@bellcopper.net
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.
