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Message: News: K-6 Drilling Update

News: K-6 Drilling Update

posted on Jul 06, 2009 09:08PM

This NR is, at least to my eyes, a bit more technical than most. Any 'tech eyes' that could shed more light on the geo speak would be welcome.

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Monday, July 06, 2009

Vancouver, B.C.: Bell Copper Corporation ("Bell Copper" or the "Company") (TSX-V Symbol: BCU) is pleased to announce encouraging developments in the drilling of hole K-6 at its 100% owned Kabba Project in Mohave County, Arizona. Drill hole K-6 is currently being cored at a depth of 574 meters in altered and leached quartz monzonite porphyry by Brown Drilling Ltd of Kingman, Arizona.

* K-6 is being drilled in a down-faulted structure on the Kabba project and entered the beginning of the mineralized target zone at 501 metres

* K-6 is currently drilling in leached cap and will continue to the target level where primary sulfide minerals are expected to be encountered

* a copper enrichment zone related to the overlying oxidized rocks (leached cap) will be expected immediately above the targeted primary sulfide mineralization.

Altered and mineralized rocks were initially encountered in K-6 at a depth of 501 meters beneath postmineral gravel and basalt filling a narrow, north-trending graben structure. Rocks showing similar alteration crop out 1000 meters southeast of K-6 and were also encountered beneath 100 meters of gravel in drill hole K-4, located 1400 meters northwest of K-6. Drill hole K-6 provides strong evidence that these widely separated areas are part of a single covered hydrothermal system having minimum dimensions of about 1500 meters in a north-south direction by about 2000 meters in an east-west direction. Bell's targeted porphyry Cu-Mo system in the hangingwall of a major fault is expected to ultimately have total areal dimensions of about 5000 meters in a north-south direction by 3000 meters in an east-west direction, based on the dimensions of the system in the outcropping footwall of the fault.

Strongly fractured and oxidized biotite gneiss cut by abundant arsenic-rich goethite and hematite veinlets was encountered in K-6 directly beneath cover rocks. This stockwork limonite zone is believed to constitute a mature leached capping that developed above the Kabba porphyry target between Laramide time (±63 Ma) and the entombment of the system by late Tertiary basalt (±19 Ma). A 23-meter interval at the top of this zone was split and analyzed by fire assay for gold and silver. This interval yielded two meter-long sections carrying 100 ppb gold and three shorter sections carrying 70 ppb gold. While these gold values do not constitute economically significant intersections, they demonstrate that hydrothermal processes deposited strongly anomalous amounts of gold typical for Arizona porphyry Cu-Mo deposits at the position of drill hole K-6.

Quartz monzonite porphyry altered to sericite was first intersected in K-6 at a depth of 546 meters. This distinctive porphyry carries quartz, orthoclase, plagioclase, and biotite phenocrysts in proportions that most closely resemble the Laramide quartz monzonite porphyry in the footwall block of the faulted system. The plagioclase, biotite, and groundmass of the porphyry are altered to light-colored sericite. Finely disseminated hematite in the groundmass of the porphyry takes the form of precursor magnetite, demonstrating the relatively high oxidation state of the hydrothermal system that altered the porphyry. Late goethite and earthy hematite veinlets cut the porphyry. The texture and alteration of the quartz monzonite porphyry in K-6 are typical of Laramide porphyries in Arizona that are closely related to porphyry copper systems.

Gangue minerals that were observed beneath the first quartz monzonite porphyry intersection include fluorite, scheelite, and red-fluorescing calcite, with increasing quartz veinlets toward the current bottom of the hole. Earthy red hematite boxwork that is characteristic of precursor chalcocite (Cu2S) carries up to 1300 ppm (0.13%) residual copper, as determined in-situ by Niton XRF analyzer.

The Company intends to continue drilling K-6 to the level where fresh sulfide minerals are encountered. Any copper enrichment zone related to the overlying oxidized rocks will be expected immediately above that level. This work is expected to be completed in about two weeks.

No mineral resource currently exists on the Kabba property. The Company can not guarantee that further exploration work on the property will result in the delineation of a mineral resource.

Timothy Marsh, PhD, P. Eng, a Qualified Person, continues to oversee the drilling operations at Kabba.

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