Dr. Timothy Marsh reports

SECOND GOVERNMENT CRITICAL MINERAL STUDY BEGINS AT BELL COPPER'S BIG SANDY PORPHYRY COPPER PROJECT IN ARIZONA, USA

The Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) at the University of Arizona, with funding from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the State of Arizona, has initiated a new study at Bell Copper Corp.'s Big Sandy porphyry copper discovery to assess potential new resources of critical minerals in Arizona. The company is contributing core samples from its 100-per-cent-owned Big Sandy porphyry copper project, a large, concealed porphyry copper-molybdenum project located in northwestern Arizona, approximately 30 kilometres from the company's Perseverance project.

Highlights:

• Several critical minerals are commonly enriched in deposits like Big Sandy.
• Big Sandy core records the continuous transition from leached capping to supergene blanket.
• Initial samples have been contributed from the company's drill core.

The AZGS research initiative, led by Dr. Carson Richardson, senior research scientist, and Zoey Plonka, AZGS research scientist, is a two-pronged project, with one component focused on constraining both the timing of exhumation (by thermochronology) and supergene processes (by argon-argon geochronology of alunite and jarosite). The other component would include a detailed study of the Big Sandy supergene profile using systematic sampling to quantify elemental/critical mineral presence and variability. This sampling work has now been completed.

A previous study of Big Sandy core samples culminated in the publication of a University of Arizona master's thesis entitled "Integrating Geochronology and Ore Mineralogy Constraints to Correlate the Formation of the Diamond Joe Pluton and Big Sandy Porphyry Copper Prospect, NW Arizona, USA," by Jonothan Chappell, generally supporting the company's concept of a genetic link between the Big Sandy porphyry and the root zone at Diamond Joe Peak, 13 kilometres to the west.

The Big Sandy core has been demonstrated to contain significant amounts of copper, rhenium and silver, elements that, notably, the USGS included on its 2025 draft list of critical minerals.

Dr. Timothy Marsh, Bell's president and chief executive officer and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, said: "Bell is pleased to contribute further samples of the Big Sandy core to aid this assessment of the nation's critical mineral resources. Big Sandy's status as one of the few complete profiles from leached capping through supergene enrichment in an unmined porphyry copper deposit gives the AZGS a great example to study."

Bell Copper continues the work of securing financing to complete the drilling of BS-4 at Big Sandy, which was suspended in August, 2024. The BS-4 drill hole is located 900 metres from the previous drill hole, BS-3, which had an intersection of 200 metres of chalcocite-bearing porphyry (see June 7, 2022, news release). The company plans to drill BS-4 into bedrock using an angle-capable mud rotary drill, to be followed by coring into bedrock.

About Bell Copper Corp.

Bell Copper is a mineral exploration company focused on the identification, exploration and discovery of large copper deposits located in Arizona. Bell Copper is exploring its 100-per-cent-owned Big Sandy porphyry copper project and the Perseverance porphyry copper project, which is under a joint venture/earn-in.

We seek Safe Harbor.