VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Jan. 13, 2009) - Bell Copper Corporation ("Bell Copper" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:BCU) announces that the Company has amended its option agreement (the "Amended Option Agreement") with Silver Nickel Mining Company ("Silver Nickel") covering two patented claims and seventeen unpatented claims within the Company's Sombrero Butte project in the Copper Creek District in Pinal County, Arizona (the "Property").
Under the Amended Option Agreement, Bell Copper will continue to have the right to earn a 100% interest in the Property by completing cash payments according to the following schedule:
- $60,000 in year one ($5,000 per month for 12 months);
- $60,000 in January 2010;
- $60,000 in January 2011;
- $60,000 in January 2012;
- $60,000 in January 2013; and
- $600,000 in January 2014.
The Amended Option Agreement eliminates the 2% NSR royalty in favour of Silver Nickel under the original option agreement. The Amended Option Agreement is subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.
Sombrero Butte Project
At Sombrero Butte, Bell has purchased, optioned and staked a large contiguous land position in the southern region of the Copper Creek District. This land package represents the first consolidation of these claims since the area was mined back in 1920.
The Sombrero Butte property contains at least two main clusters of breccia pipes believed to be associated with one or more underlying porphyry copper systems. The breccia pipes in the northern cluster represent relatively small but high-grade copper deposits that are of greatest interest because of their suspected link to an underlying porphyry copper system. At least twenty distinct breccia pipes had been recognized by Bell Copper in the Sombrero Butte area prior to 2008, and 34 diamond drillholes were completed to test mineralization within the pipes and any shallow subjacent porphyry system.
Recent fieldwork has resulted in the discovery of 8 additional breccia pipes in a separate cluster located three kilometers further south. These 8 pipes constitute a distinct cluster covering an area of 1 kilometer by 1.6 kilometers. The newly discovered breccias share a common style of hydrothermal alteration consisting of relatively coarse grained (greater than 100 microns), translucent, blue-green dickite (Al2Si2O5(OH)4) filling open spaces between angular breccia clasts. Wallrock surrounding the breccia pipes is in most places unaltered, or cut by sheeted tourmaline-quartz veinlets. The striking similarity of the alteration in these widely separated breccia pipes suggests that they shared a common hydrothermal reservoir, like a large porphyry copper system in the subsurface.
Dickite is an alumino-silicate clay that forms at temperatures of 150 degrees - 270 degrees C under very acidic conditions. Primary potassium feldspar and secondary muscovite (sericite) in the breccias have been completely replaced by dickite, necessary mineralogical reactions to qualify as advanced argillic alteration. Positive identification of the dickite was made using a Pima infrared spectrometer as well as a microRaman spectrometer at the University of Arizona's RRUFF laboratory.
Hydrothermal alteration in the previously recognized breccia cluster 3 kilometers to the north ranges from chlorite-calcite-specular hematite-quartz-amethyst-adularia-rhodochrosite, to tourmaline-biotite-chlorite, to chlorite-sericite-hematite. Primary sulfide mineralization in the northern breccia cluster includes bornite-chalcopyrite and pyrite variably overprinted by steely supergene chalcocite. The presence of abundant dickite and gossanous iron oxides including jarosite within the southern breccia cluster adds a new and larger dimension to the footprint of this system.
X-ray fluoresecence analyses of iron oxide minerals in the dickite-bearing breccias show anomalous copper, molybdenum, and arsenic concentrations. Multiple young porphyry dikes up to several hundred meters long cut the host rocks surrounding the breccia pipes, and the porphyries are present as angular, rotated clasts within some of the breccias. Abundant copper oxide minerals, including the relatively rare mineral vesignieite (BaCu3(VO4)2(OH)2) are present at the surface in two widely separated breccia bodies that do not appear to carry dickite. Tourmaline is locally very abundant outside the breccia pipes as vein fillings and vein envelopes in sheeted, steeply dipping vein sets that do not seem closely linked to the dickite bearing breccias.
The drill Table below outlines all drill holes to date at Sombrero and any significant copper intercepts.
BRECCIA TARGET DRILL HOLE FROM TO METERS % CU
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Magna & Sunset SB-01 Leached breccia, no significant intercepts
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Magna SB-02 286m 334m 48m 1.06%
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incl. 318m 328m 10m 2.04%
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Campstool SB-03 272m 294m 22m 0.58%
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SB-03 470m 492m 22m 1.31%
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incl. 480m 492m 12m 2.06%
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Magna SB-04 Leached breccia, no significant intercepts
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Sunset SB-05 18m 40m 22m 4.74%
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Magna SB-06 330m 342m 12m 1.34%
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Sunset SB-07 38m 47.56m 9.56m 5.57%
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Sunset SB-08 44m 48m 4m 5.62%
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Rattler SB-09 96m 110m 14m 0.83%
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Rattler SB-10 no significant intercepts, leached breccia
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Rattler SB-11 312m 342m 30m 0.37%
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Audacious SB-12 12m 26m 14m 2.90%
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Audacious SB-13 22m 24m 2m 5.85%
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Audacious SB-14 20m 86m 66m 1.45%
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Audacious SB-14 34m 46m 12m 2.33%
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Audacious SB-15 16m 36m 20m 3.07%
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including 22m 28m 6m 5.69%
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Audacious SB-16 0m 14m 14m 1.71%
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SB-16 22m 46m 24m 2.12%
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including 22m 26m 4m 4.75%
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Audacious SB-17 0m 8m 8m 3.23%
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Audacious SB-18 0m 12m 12m 2.32%
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SB-18 22m 38m 16m 1.95%
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Audacious SB-19 20m 42m 22m 2.97%
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including 20m 24m 4m 5.91%
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including 34m 38m 4m 4.76%
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Sunset SB-20 4m 16m 12m 2.50%
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including 8m 12m 4m 4.03%
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Saguaro SB-21 no significant intercepts
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Victors SB-22 no significant intercepts
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Magna SB-23 282m 354m 72m 0.88%
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Magna SB-23 458m 484m 26m 2.03%
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Victor's SB-24 0m 20m 20m 1.27%
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Victor's SB-25 0m 12m 12m 2.05%
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Victor's SB-26 0m 12m 12m 2.25%
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Victor's SB-27 14m 30m 16m 1.22%
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Victor's SB-28 14m 20m 6m 1.36%
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Victor's SB-29 4m 70m 66m 0.61%
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Victor's SB-30 10m 40m 30m 0.86%
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Victor's SB-31 2.6m 8m 5.4m 2.07%
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Victor's SB-32 2m 8m 6m 2.47%
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Victor's SB-33 6m 24m 18m 1.80%
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Victor's SB-34 8m 24m 16m 1.77%
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Future drilling at Sombrero Butte will be focused on the dickite-bearing breccia pipes because of the role that dickite plays in some exceptional porphyry copper deposits in Arizona and elsewhere around the world. Dickite is known in several of Arizona's major, higher grade porphyry copper systems, including Resolution, Bisbee, and San Manuel (19 kilometers west of Sombrero Butte). Dickite is also known at Oyu Tolgoi, Mongolia, Butte, Montana, Cananea, Mexico, and El Salvador, Chile. In these deposits dickite is associated with higher grade copper minerals such as digenite, chalcocite, and bornite.
For the purposes of this news release, the Qualified Person is Timothy Marsh, Ph.D., P.Eng., the Company's Vice President of Exploration.
About Bell Copper
Bell Copper is focused on the exploration and development of copper assets in the Americas through internal efforts and via strategic partnerships.
More information on Bell Copper: www.bellcopper.net
On behalf of the Board of Directors of Bell Copper Corporation
Brian Leeners, CFO & Director
Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the 'safe harbor' provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties.
The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.