Porphyry Drilling Updates - La Balsa & Kabba

TSX-V Symbol: BCU

VANCOUVER, Nov. 4 /CNW Telbec/ - Bell Copper Corporation ("Bell Copper" or the "Company") (TSX-V Symbol: BCU) is pleased to announce the following updates on the active diamond drilling on both the Kabba and La Balsa porphyry projects. To date, drilling at Kabba and La Balsa has intersected the large porphyry systems that were previously conceptual geologic models or geophysical anomalies.

La Balsa Project, Mexico

Until recently, exploration has only covered roughly 10% of the 100% owned, 20 km² La Balsa property, with the emphasis having been on the delineation of near surface oxide and sulphide resources (11.4 million tons grading 0.77% copper), which were the subject of the March 2010 positive scoping study. During the delineation of these deposits, evidence continued to be gathered to support the existence of an underlying porphyry copper system. 

The main La Balsa deposit is cut-off at depth by a thrust fault, and with structural movements to the NE in the district, it is projected that these breccias were once located atop a buried porphyry. The volume of brecciation found at the La Balsa Ridge is difficult to explain except by a deeper source, and two profound aeromagnetic lows to the SW of the deposits are indicative of the possible location of an underlying porphyry system.

BCU is currently in the midst of a 3 hole, 2,000 m drill program to test the core of the 2 km X 1 km aeromagnetic low and the porphyry target, with the first two holes of this program having intersected what is believed to be the outer edges of the porphyry system.  Hole MM-322 (drilled to 661 meters depth) and hole MM-323 (drilled to 720 meters depth), have both penetrated strongly altered and mineralized monzonite porphyry beneath a gently west-dipping thrust fault. Mineralization comprised abundant pyrite and specular hematite accompanied by sparse chalcopyrite. An increase in alteration grade from predominantly sericitic in MM-322 in the east to predominantly potassic (orthoclase) in MM-323, 500 meters further to the west, suggests that the heart of the porphyry system might lie yet further to the west.

The third hole on the La Balsa porphyry program, MM-324, located 500 meters further west of MM-323, has now been initiated, and is currently being drilled at a depth of 170 meters in the middle of the aeromagnetic low that is believed to represent the center of the La Balsa porphyry system.

Kabba Project, Arizona

Drilling is also being conducted on a large porphyry system on the 100% owned 8,031 acre Kabba property in north-west Arizona.  While the projected location of the buried porphyry was initially conceptualized via the structural geology of the area, recent drilling has confirmed the existence of the buried porphyry.  

During the 1950's through the early 1980's, a number of mining companies explored a major 3 X 5 mile pyritic halo surrounding an outcropping porphyry located to the west of the Kabba property. Although their efforts identified abundant but sub-economic copper and molybdenum mineralization, Bell Copper management have since concluded that the outcropping parts of the porphyry system were an exposure of the deeper roots of the original system, with the upper portions of the system, which normally host the higher-grade copper mineralization, having been truncated in the past.

Geological investigations by the Company subsequently identified a major low-angle fault immediately east of this porphyry root, and by investigating the downward displacement of a distinct marker unit that occurs in the Kabba region, management was able to generate a history of faulting in the area, and projected the displacement of the truncated porphyry cap approximately 4.5 miles further to the east.  While the initial 6 step-out holes (K1-K6), due east of the outcropping porphyry root, exhibited evidence of the proximity to a porphyry system, it was not until further evidence (including a new IP survey which pointed to strong anomalies to the north, and subsequent field work that matched up location of distinct hanging wall rock-types) that the direction of displacement of the cap was projected to be to the north-east.  While hole K-7 was lost in the thick overburden, Hole K-8 which was located further to the north-east, encountered sericitically altered dacite porphyry enriched in lead, zinc and manganese, interpreted as the east margin of the main porphyry.  Hole K-9 is in progress 1 km to the west of K-8.  Difficult drilling conditions, which have been causing significant delays in the completion of hole K-9, are primarily arising due to the extreme alteration and fracturing of the rocks, which one would expect to intersect atop a major porphyry system.  

Drilling at hole K-9 has discovered a significant strongly altered and mineralized Laramide diatreme breccia in the faulted top of the Kabba porphyry system beneath 534 meters of cover.  Five drillholes, designated K-9A through K-9E, have been splayed off of the mother hole K-9 at depths below 700 meters in as yet unsuccessful attempts to penetrate a zone of very weak, strongly sericitized dacite porphyry carrying several volume percent pyrite.  Drilling has demonstrated so far that the vertical extent of the diatreme breccia is greater than 500 meters. Small quantities of chalcopyrite, bornite, and molybdenite have been observed in several of the drillholes below 900 meters, suggesting that the drilling may be approaching a copper mineralized shell. The Company concludes that the drillholes have advanced down a major Laramide volcanic vent overprinted by the outer mineralized shells of a significant porphyry copper system.

Major Drilling, widely regarded as one of the best deephole diamond drillers in the world, is working to advance K-9E through very weak rock. The degradation of rock strength seen in each of the drillholes is a result of the large amount of corrosive hydrothermal fluid that circulated through the upper parts of this hydrothermal system. This condition has delayed the completion of a definitive drill test of the targeted copper shell at Kabba.  The Company remains confident that Major's experience and ability will allow them to complete this drill test to at least 1500 meters depth.

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.

For the purposes of this news release, the Qualified Person is Timothy Marsh, Ph.D., P.Eng., the Company's President.

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 and the Southwestern US.

More information on Bell Copper: www.bellcopper.net

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: