Bell Copper Corporation - La Balsa update

TSX-V SYMBOL: BCU

VANCOUVER, May 18 /CNW Telbec/ - Bell Copper Corporation ("Bell Copper" or the "Company") (TSX-V Symbol: BCU) announces its wholly owned Mexican subsidiary Minera Montoro S.A. de C.V. is pleased to report progress on a three-hole, 2000-meter diamond drilling program to test the porphyry copper target immediately west of the Company's current mineral resource at La Balsa. The target comprises a 1 kilometer by 2 kilometer aeromagnetic anomaly on the western side of its 100%-owned La Balsa property located 15 kilometers north of the Port of Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, Mexico.

Drillhole MM-322, the first of three drillholes designed to test the buried porphyry target, cut 25 meters of cover rocks and then entered strongly altered porphyritic rocks carrying several percent pyrite. At least three distinct phases of porphyry have been identified, and all three carry disseminated pyrite and gypsum veinlets. At depths below 67 meters the most abundant porphyry carries common xenolithic clasts that are strongly rimmed by thick pyrite rinds. This same xenolithic texture is observed in the porphyry intrusive within the known mineral resource to the east. Alteration varies between intense sericitic alteration within the xenoliths to pervasive orthoclase flooding in the intervening porphyry. Distinctive dark gray sericite envelopes are present locally around pyrite veins ("D-veins" of porphyry copper nomenclature), though coarsely disseminated blebby pyrite hosted by light gray pervasive sericite is the most common mode of occurrence of the sulfide mineral. Small quantities of chalcopyrite have been observed near the current bottom of the hole at a depth of about 195 meters.

The Company will continue drilling MM-322 to a sufficient depth to test the concept of a deeper porphyry-related feeder zone that represents the structurally detached roots of the known breccia- and porphyry-hosted copper resource. The entire 3-hole drilling program is expected to be completed by the end of June of this year.

About Bell Copper

Bell Copper is a public company with a focus on copper exploration, development and production in North America. The Company has an extensive portfolio of exploration and development projects located in some of North America's premier copper producing regions including Mexico, the Southwestern US and Northwestern British Columbia.

    
    ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF
    BELL COPPER CORPORATION

    "Michael Werner"

    Michael Werner, CEO & Director
    

"Neither 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."

For further information: Bell Copper Corporation: Sarah Stephanson, Executive Assistant, [phone], [email protected]; www.bellcopper.net; Renmark Financial Communications Inc.: Christine Stewart, [email protected]; Jason Roy, [email protected]; [phone], [phone]; www.renmarkfinancial.com