Jaba to begin drilling by Kennecott on East Silver Bell project
Jaba Inc JBA
Shares issued 22,340,336 Jun 10 close $0.08
Thu 10 Jun 99 News Release
JABA ANNOUNCES INTENTION TO COMMENCE DRILLING BY KENNECOTT EXPLORATION COMPANY ON TUESDAY JUNE 15, 1999 ON ITS EAST SILVER BELL PORPHYRY COPPER PROJECT, ARIZONA
JABA Inc. is pleased to announce that the drilling to be undertaken by Kennecott Exploration Company as part of its Joint Venture obligation on JABA's East Silver Bell project in the Silver Bell Mining District in Pima county, southeastern Arizona is expected to commence on Tuesday June 15, 1999. The Silver Bell District has a past production of 81.8 million metric tons at a grade of 0.73% copper. The district has been continuously mined by ASARCO for more than 45 years. The East Silver Bell property adjoins the ASARCO property and overlies the east extension of the Silver Bell District.
The technical description of the exploration target in our last news release was confusing to our non-technical shareholders. As noted in that release of April 29, 1999, and as a clarification of the technical terms used in that release, in JABA's opinion, as well as those of the other consulting geologists involved, the leached capping and alteration encountered in the last drilling program by venture partner Valerie Gold indicates that a copper enrichment zone or "chalcocite blanket" , (chalcocite - a copper mineral consisting of two atoms of copper and one of sulfur (Cu2S) - 80% copper and 20% sulfur by weight) has a good chance of
occurring below the oxidized leached capping which has not yet been fully penetrated. This chalcocite blanket enrichment is what formed the ore bodies in the ASARCO part of the Silver Bell mining district and most other porphyry copper deposits throughout the world. In the original open pit ore at Silver Bell the grade was in the +1% range though material now being mined is about 0.37% copper (about 3.7 kg/ metric ton or 7.4 lbs per short ton). Leached capping in porphyry copper deposits develops from the oxidizing effects of the atmosphere and bacterial action dissolving the copper and leaching it out of the surface to be precipitated immediately below the water table as a tabular chalcocite enriched zone or "blanket".
To those knowledgeable in the art (in this case the JABA geologists and its consultants and the Kennecott geologists) the previous presence of copper in the leached capping leaves telltale indicators suggesting a chalcocite blanket may be present below oxidized (leached capping) rocks. This is the target at the JABA East Silver Bell property.
The Kennecott/JABA joint venture will further explore the porphyry copper indicators at the East Silver Bell project by drilling. Since the April 29, 1999 news release, further consideration suggests that rather than re-entering one of the existing drill holes with a diamond drill, a new hole will be drilled using reverse circulation methods. This will result in lower costs and more rapid penetration. A single hole will be drilled to the lesser of 2,000 feet or the shallowest depth at which a majority of the rocks are unoxidized plus an additional 200 feet. If the results of this hole are encouraging to Kennecott, it has the right but not the obligation
to continue the drilling program.
On another matter, the JABA web site and email communication was down from Friday May 28 to Thursday June 3, 1999. This outage resulted when our local service provider where our web site resided, without notice to any of its clients, removed its computers and vacated its premises over the U.S. Memorial Day weekend, ceasing business. This was discovered Tuesday morning, June 2, by JABA who physically went to the site, as no telephones were being answered. It took the remainder of the time to get set up with Sprint subsidiary EarthLink.com. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. We believe we will have uninterrupted service in the future.
JABA continues to actively seek Joint Venture partners for its other properties in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
James A. Briscoe, Chief Executive Officer
The Alberta Stock Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the information contained herein.
(c) Copyright 1999 Canjex Publishing Ltd. canada-stockwatch.com
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