La Balsa
History
The La Balsa project has been under exploration since the 1950s when Asarco owned the claims. In 1977, a Mexican subsidiary of Cyprus Minerals acquired the project and subsequently performed extensive exploration work on the property, including ground magnetometer surveys, soil & chip sampling, and drilling of 76 shallow holes (most between 20-40 meters in depth). Following their initial exploration work, Cyprus produced a non NI43-101 compliant "global resource" of 160 million pounds of copper on the drilled area of the property, and in 1987 commissioned a feasibility study (non NI43-101 compliant) which came back very favorable, estimating cash operating costs of US$0.30 per pound copper when copper prices were at US$1.00 and rising. Cyprus' subsequent exploration failed to increase the "global resource" and they decided that this resource did not meet their corporate objectives. As a result, the property was sold to Minera Virgo in 1990.
Along with further exploration work, Minera Virgo commissioned a feasibility study (non NI43-101) by MEC of Phoenix which reached a similiar favorable conclusion. Minera Virgo then attemped to raise the required funds to bring the project to production, but was unsuccessful and as a result sold the property.
In May of 1996, Nevada Star Resources optioned the property from Minera Virgo. They conducted a detailed review of all past exploration work and drilled 16 holes to confirm the previously estimated reserves and resources. Nevada Star produced a non NI43-101 compliant resource of 200 million pounds of copper, with the potential to be much higher if a suspected underlying porphyry could be located. Nevada Star began to solicit funding to move the project into production in 1998, but copper had dropped to a 12 year low of USD$0.60 per pound and due to the high annual property payments the property was returned to Minera Virgo.
The property was subsequently acquired by Fischer-Watt, which completed eight diamond drillholes to confirm existing high-grade copper intersections.
Persistent low copper prices continued to discourage investment in the property. Following Fischer-Watt's drilling, the property was idle until Rogue River Resources initiated its purchase in 2005. In 2008, by way of a business combination, the La Balsa copper project was acquired by Bell Copper Corporation.
