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Silver Bell West, Arizona
| Target Commodity: |  | Cu |
| Partnership Status: | | Geo Minerals lease/option agreement |
| Land Position: | | ~3760 acres ; 188 U.S. unpatented lode mining claims |
| Property Location: | | Silver Bell mining district; Silver Bell Mountains, approximately 30 miles northwest of Tucson, Arizona |
- Property immediately adjacent to operating Silver Bell Mine (a 75% / 25% Asarco/Mitsui partnership), which has produced more than 84 Mt at an average grade of 0.76 percent copper from skarn, secondary enrichment blankets and porphyry ores since the discovery of mineralization in 1865, and reports reserves greater than 185 Mt at 0.61 % Cu (Long, 1995)
- Multiple stratigraphic units favorable for development of skarn mineralization and porphyry-style copper mineralization are recognized within the BCE land position, where a series of normal faults have down-dropped target rocks and lie beneath younger cover
- BCE is currently targeting two areas for exploration:
- Paleozoic carbonate units likely to host copper-rich skarn mineralization that underlie outcrops of copper-mineralized Laramide intrusive rocks and copper-gold mineralized Mesozoic sedimentary rocks in the contact aureole
- Trends of porphyry copper and skarn mineralization that project beneath cover rocks
- Paleozoic carbonate units likely to host copper-rich skarn mineralization that underlie outcrops of copper-mineralized Laramide intrusive rocks and copper-gold mineralized Mesozoic sedimentary rocks in the contact aureole
- Ten drill sites in have been permitted, and first-round drilling is scheduled to begin in 2009