Bell Copper Corp. Stakes Big Sandy Porphyry Copper Prospect in Arizona
Vancouver, July 20, 2020 - Bell Copper Corp. (TSXV: BCU) ("Bell Copper" or the "Company") reports that it has acquired through staking the BIG SANDY project, a large, truncated porphyry copper-molybdenum prospect located in northwestern Arizona, approximately 30 kilometers from the Company's Perseverance Project. The Big Sandy project comprises approximately 1400 hectares of mineral tenures, including 128 federal lode mining claims and 3 State of Arizona Mineral Exploration Permits. Highlights
- Bell acquires Porphyry Copper project located 30 km from it's Perseverance Porphyry Copper project and on trend with other producing porphyry systems
- Initial field work identifies multiple copper occurrences including exotic copper
- Fanglomerate clasts carrying chrysocolla and chalcocite (supergene copper minerals) found across a distance of 1250 meters on the Company's claims.
- Quantec Geoscience mobilized to perform project wide Magnetotelluric survey
Exploration Concept
Bell Copper began exploring the Big Sandy area in 2009, after geologic success in discovering what was believed to be the faulted top of the Wheeler Wash porphyry copper-molybdenum system, 30 kilometers to the north at the Company's Perseverance project.
Extrapolation southward along the controlling Hualapai Fault suggested that the known Laramide-age Diamond Joe porphyry copper system would also have a faulted-off top, lying east of Diamond Joe out in the Big Sandy Valley. No copper occurrences had been previously reported in any government databases from the area, but upon field investigation by the Company, several surficial occurrences have now been discovered. The Company believes that the unusual copper occurrences are linked to a shallowly covered porphyry copper deposit.
Nearby porphyry systems in the same Laramide belt include Bagdad 50 kilometers to the southeast, Mineral Park 65 kilometers to the northwest, and the Company's Perseverance JV with Cordoba Minerals, 30 kilometers to the north.
Exotic Copper and Copper Fanglomerate
Copper minerals found at Big Sandy by the Company are hosted in geologically recent terrace gravels of the Big Sandy River, in young faults that have recently conducted groundwater up to the surface, and as clasts in an extensive fanglomerate formation. Black manganese-copper oxide deposits crop out on the property in young terrace deposits of the Big Sandy River, demonstrating the recent discharge of metal-rich, acidic groundwater from the target area. This exotic copper deposit is expected to lie down hydrologic gradient from a concealed copper-molybdenum porphyry system, analogous to the "Exotica" copper deposit below the Chuquicamata porphyry in Chile.
Figure 1: Neotocite
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Figure 2: Neotocite cementing young terrace gravel along the Big Sandy River
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Additionally, fanglomerate clasts carrying chrysocolla and chalcocite (supergene copper minerals) have been found across a distance of 1250 meters on the Company's claims. Many varieties of veins and alteration types typical of porphyry copper deposits (e.g. "A-veins" and "D-veins" of Gustafson and Hunt, 1975), have been found in the fanglomerate formation cropping out over an area measuring 1250 meters by 800 meters. Heavy mineral associations in the fanglomerate are identical to those from outcropping Laramide rocks of the Diamond Joe porphyry copper system, located 12 kilometers to the west-southwest. The coarse grain size and angularity of clasts in the fanglomerate suggest that the formation was mainly transported to its current location en masse by structural movement (i.e. faulting), rather than by sedimentary transport. This implies that the underlying bedrock target may be grossly intact.
Figure 3: Fanglomerate clasts carrying chrysocolla and chalcocite (supergene copper minerals) are present across a distance of 1250 meters
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Figure 4
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*Mineralization shown is from selected intervals, and not necessarily representative or indicative of the mineralization hosted on the Big Sandy property
Exploration Activities
In order to understand the distribution of electrically conductive rocks that might indicate the presence of copper porphyry-related sulfide mineralization and hydrolytic alteration beneath the fanglomerate at Big Sandy, Bell has contracted Quantec Geoscience Limited to perform a property-wide Spartan magnetotelluric (MT) survey. Quantec has mobilized and will be performing the survey imminently.
Samples collected from exotic copper and iron mineralization have been sent to the lab for geochemical analysis. Assays are anticipated in the coming weeks
Tim Marsh, Bell's President and CEO, and a Qualified Person as defined by NI43-101, said, "The Big Sandy project focuses on the faulted-off top of a 25-square-kilometer Laramide porphyry system located along the Bagdad-Perseverance-Mineral Park trend. The abundance of intensely veined and altered fanglomerate clasts carrying chalcocite and chrysocolla, exotic black copper oxide cementing some of the youngest Big Sandy River terrace gravels, and exotic red hematite staining in valley-filling gravels spanning an area 6 kilometers by 4 kilometers, provide indications of the scale and potential mineralization in this grassroots exploration play. With our land position established and Quantec's Sparton MT survey underway, the Big Sandy project gives Bell an independent path toward rapid discovery while Cordoba Minerals continues to advance our exciting Perseverance copper porphyry project. We intend to drill any significant conductive targets at Big Sandy as soon as possible."
About Bell Copper
Bell Copper is a mineral exploration company focused on the identification, exploration and discovery of large copper deposits located in Arizona. Bell Copper is exploring its 100% owned Big Sandy Porphyry Copper Project and the Perseverance Porphyry Copper Project which is under a Joint Venture - Earn In.
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 Big Sandy 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 Corp.
"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.
Forward Looking Statements
This news release includes "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements included in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include predictions, projections and forecasts and are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "potential", "target", "budget" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions and includes the negatives thereof.
Forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management based on the business and markets in which Bell Copper operates, are inherently subject to significant operational, economic, and competitive uncertainties, risks and contingencies. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results, and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include actual exploration results, interpretation of metallurgical characteristics of the mineralization, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, delays or inability to receive required approvals, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators, including those described in the Company's most recently filed MD&A. The Company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable law.