Drill Results June 05, 2013 07:00 ET
Bellhaven Drills 217 m of 1.3 g/t Gold and 0.15% Copper (1.54 g/t Gold Equivalent) at La Garrucha Prospect, La Mina, Colombia
Major Discovery at La Garrucha after Bellhaven Delivers One of the Company's Best Drill Holes in Colombia
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - June 5, 2013) -Bellhaven Copper & Gold Inc. (TSX VENTURE:BHV) ("Bellhaven" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the first drill hole collared over the core region of the magnetic anomaly at La Garrucha delivered one of the Company's best intercepts ever drilled in Colombia: 217 m of 1.3 g/t Au and 0.15% Cu or 1.54 g/t AuEq. Given these results together with the large size of the core of the magnetic anomaly (350 m by 250 m), Bellhaven believes it now has made a major discovery less than one km away from the Company's La Cantera and Middle Zone prospects. The Company also believes that the discovery at La Garrucha confirms that clusters of high-grade gold-(copper) porphyry deposits occur at La Mina and as such, La Mina holds the potential to form a new and significant gold-porphyry district in the Middle Cauca Belt of Colombia.
Highlights of Discovery Hole LME-1100 include:
- LME-1100 cut four gold-(copper) intercepts, with the first occurring near the surface (less than 13 m vertical depth) (See Table 1);
- The long, 217-m interval averaging 1.3 g/t Au and 0.15% Cu (1.54 g/t AuEq) contains a 36-m subinterval of higher-grade material averaging 2.25 g/t Au and 0.30% Cu (2.70 g/t AuEq), and
- The La Garrucha discovery hole is located less than one km away from the La Cantera and Middle Zone prospects where 2.55 Moz gold equivalent have been delineated in accordance with NI 43-101 (see press release dated July 9, 2012).
For figures showing a plan map and cross section highlighting the new drill hole announced in this press release (LME-1100), please use the link below:
https://media3.marketwire.com/docs/bhv605-Figs.pdf.
Julio Benedetti, Bellhaven's CEO and Chairman, commented as follows:
"This drill hole is highly significant to Bellhaven as it marks our third discovery at La Mina after the two discoveries at La Cantera and the Middle Zone. It is exciting that our discovery hole at La Garrucha is also one of the best holes ever drilled by the Company. It took until drilling the 22nd hole at La Cantera, one of the highest grade porphyry gold-(copper) deposits in the Americas, before a 200-m intercept averaging over 1 g/t Au was delivered (LM-DDH-22: 236 m @ 1.04 g/t Au and 0.45% Cu or 1.80 g/t AuEq-see press release dated May 9, 2011). It is rather unusual and noteworthy for a company to drill such a remarkable exploration hole on its first attempt."
"The large and intense magnetic anomaly is what led us to drill at La Garrucha. As indicated before, this anomaly is almost twice the size as the one over La Cantera where Bellhaven delivered a resource of 1.6 Moz AuEq after 14 months of drilling its first hole. The fact that such high grade is associated with the anomaly over La Garrucha, as evidenced by LME-1100, bodes well for this prospect. We are looking forward to drilling more holes at La Garrucha and announcing a stream of drilling results over the months ahead."
In accordance with National Instrument 43-101, it is noted that the potential quality and grade at La Garrucha is conceptual in nature, that there has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource, and that it is uncertain if further exploration will result in a target being delineated as a mineral resource.
Discussion of Drilling Results
LME-1100 was collared on May 9th and completed on May 19th, after reaching a down-hole depth of 414.52 m (see Table 2). The drill-hole was designed to test the northwestern portion of the core of the large magnetic anomaly occurring over the La Garrucha prospect (see Figure 3). The northwestern portion was selected over the central portion because prior drilling indicated that attractive grades of gold and copper occurred in this northern area (e.g., the last 10.81 m of LME-1096 delivered 1.10 g/t Au and 0.20% Cu-see press release dated February 28, 2013). Future drilling will be directed to the southeast over the central core region after a few more holes are completed in the area of LME-1100.
The first two intervals cut by LME-1100 are hosted by higher-level sericitic alteration (quartz-sericite-pyrite/Fe-oxides) characteristic of the upper levels of porphyry deposits. In contrast, the third and fourth intervals (as well as the higher-grade subinterval) occur in potassic alteration (biotite-Kfeldspar-magnetite-chalcopyrite±bornite) characteristic of deeper levels of porphyry deposits. This is significant to note because at the neighbouring La Cantera prospect (see Fig 2), gold and copper are hosted in rocks overprinted by potassic alteration (significant amounts of sericitic alteration do not occur at La Cantera), suggesting that the full vertical profile of the deposit is preserved at La Garrucha, unlike La Cantera.
Footnote 1: Includes 6.70 m grading 22.0 g/t Ag within the 18.76 m intercept. Intercepts calculated using a 0.40 g/t AuEq cut-off grade. AuEq = gold equivalent (g/t). For information on calculation of AuEq grades, please see Forward-Looking Statements below. Gold and copper grades capped at 5 g/t Au and 2% Cu, respectively. Intercepts reported as down-hole lengths and may not represent true thicknesses.
This news release has been prepared under the supervision of Mr. Thomas J. Drown, P.Geo. Mr. Drown has more than 25 years relevant experience and is a British Colombia Professional Geoscientist. He is a senior project geologist with the Company at the La Mina Project and serves as the qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.