- Bell Copper (BCU) received a preliminary report of metallurgical testing of the most copper-rich interval of drillhole BS-3 at its Big Sandy project in Arizona
- Mineralogically, 75 per cent of the copper in the sample was chalcocite, while another 15 per cent was bornite, and the remainder was comprised of other sulfide copper minerals
- Opportunities exist to increase the concentrate grade by depressing clean pyrite
- At a bulk cleaner concentrate grade of 25 per cent Cu, silver grade was approximately 130 g/t Ag while recovery was approximately 68 per cent
- Silver appeared to track with copper
- Bell Copper Corp. (BCU) was down 5.77 per cent trading at $0.24 per share as of 4:50 pm ET
Bell Copper (BCU) received a preliminary report of metallurgical testing of the most copper-rich interval of drillhole BS-3 at its Big Sandy project.
Mineralogically, 75 per cent of the copper in the sample was chalcocite, while another 15 per cent was bornite, and the remainder was comprised of other sulfide copper minerals.
Big Sandy is a large, truncated porphyry copper-molybdenum target located in northwestern Arizona, approximately 30 kilometers south of the company’s analogous Perseverance Project.
Bell Copper’s President and CEO, Tim Marsh stated that a first look at the metallurgical characteristics of the Big Sandy porphyry suggests that Bell should be considering multiple extraction alternatives as the team pursues this ongoing discovery.
“This work shows that either conventional froth flotation or leaching is a candidate recovery method for the copper mineralization encountered in BS-3. Opportunities for fine-tuning of processes exist, but the initial effort to make a 25 per cent copper concentrate at 82-84 per cent recovery yielded a product that is attractive to copper smelters. If future engineering studies show that extraction via underground mining is unfavorable, the leaching studies suggest that in-situ extraction might be a feasible alternative. And for the second time in the opening days of this discovery story, elevated rhenium content of molybdenite in the BS-3 metallurgical sample, like the high rhenium content of molybdenite that was age-dated 1200 meters away in drillhole BS-1, suggests that high levels of the strategic metal rhenium is a hallmark of the Big Sandy porphyry system.”
Silver appeared to track with copper.
Bell Copper is a mineral exploration company focused on large copper deposits in Arizona.
Bell Copper Corp. (BCU) was down 5.77 per cent trading at $0.24 per share as of 4:50 pm ET.