Teryl Resources Corporation (TSX.V: TRC; Pinksheets: TRYLF) -- www.terylresources.com -- has assembled a portfolio of exploration and advanced development properties in close proximity to some of the world’s largest copper and gold deposits.
As a result of the company’s acquisition of the 248-acre Gold Hill Project near Bisbee, Arizona, the famed Copper Queen Mine – one of the world’s greatest copper treasures – now joins the equally famed Fort Knox Mine in Alaska as a stone’s-throw neighbor to this savvy junior resource company.
Teryl is one of the main property owners in Alaska’s Fairbanks Mining Division with significant land holdings around and adjacent to Kinross’ Fort Knox Mine, the largest producing gold mine in Alaska, and Kinross’ True North property.
Over the past few years, Teryl has established a solid gold resource at its Alaskan holdings and now has turned its attention to reproducing the same success in Arizona. Given the more than $1 billion in copper, gold and silver produced historically from mines near Teryl’s newly acquired Gold Hill prospect, that goal may not be so far-fetched. The property is riddled with old placer diggings, small mine shafts, pits and cuts – and is the site of the historic Gold Hill, rising 5,941 feet to tower over the surrounding town of Bisbee and the Warren Mining District in Cochise County, Arizona. Armed with strong sample assays, Teryl is about to begin an ambitious exploration program at Gold Hill.
“Our goal is to hit economic ore and hopefully discover a large copper deposit,” says Teryl Resources President John Robertson.
Aggressive Exploration Planned At Gold Hill Project in Arizona

Teryl’s Gold Hill Project is located about four miles from the Copper Queen/Lavender Pit mine – one of the richest copper mines in history. Under the ownership of Phelps Dodge, the mine produced 75 million tons of copper gold and silver ore from 1954 to 1974, when the mine was closed because of falling copper prices. Now that copper is again near record levels, Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc. (which acquired Phelps Dodge earlier this year) has resumed drilling the Lavender pit to test the economics of reopening the mine.
In almost 100 years of continuous production, Bisbee area mines produced metals valued at $6.1 billion (at 1975 prices) one of the largest production valuations of all the mining districts in the world – an estimated production of 8,032,352,000 lbs. of copper, 2,871,786 ounces of gold, 77,162,986 ounces of silver, 304,627,600 lbs of lead and 371,945,900 lbs of zinc.
For more than a century, Bisbee has reigned as one of the world’s premiere copper mining towns. It all began in the late 1870’s when cavalry Lt. Jack Dunn was chasing Apache Indians and instead discovered evidence of a wealth of copper, gold and silver hidden in the Mule Mountains. Dunn grubstaked prospector George Warren to explore the area.
Limited copper production began in the 1880s, and by the mid-1900s, Phelps Dodge became the dominant force and eventually the sole operator of the mining district.
Teryl’s copper, gold and silver Gold Hill property encompasses seven patented claim blocks on 248 acres in the midst of the famed Warren Mining District (named for that original prospector). The claim blocks include the Old Gold Hill, Superior and Baston mines. Teryl can earn a 100% interest in the property, subject to a 10% net profit interest, and also has a 10-year option to purchase up to the 10% net profit interest.
Teryl has collected an abundance of geologic and aeromagnetic data that will be used in developing a comprehensive exploration program at Gold Hill – and aid in the search of permissive patterns and magnetic characteristics that would indicate possible porphyry and replacement manto styles of mineralization similar to the Lavender Pit and the large low grade Cochise Project area.
According to one report, the Gold Hill prospect’s structural geology is quite similar to Nevada’s Carlin Trend, a 40-mile line of major gold deposits with over 100 million ounces of gold reserves.
The project area has a history of placer and lode mine production. The principle gold target in the exploration area is the Gold Hill Fault, a structure that extends for two miles and includes several adits and test pits. The Glance Conglomerate, the project’s secondary target, is located just to the south of the fault and is reported to have micron-sized gold associated with copper in fine quartz-filled fractures. Two weak magnetic highs are believed to pinpoint potential replacement/manto-like bodies. The company reports that the lens-like shapes and proximity to significant copper results from just a few samples suggest the need for an induced polarization test line on each of the targets.
The company’s consulting geophysicist, Carl Windels has recommended an induced polarization survey to test for the presence of disseminated sulphides at depth. If the test proves positive, the next step would be to complete a drilling grid on a 500-meter spacing to cover the entire property.
Rock sampling conducted last year yielded significant results with assays up to 2.54% copper. Four out of 16 samples exceeded 0.8% copper, a level required for current mined porphyry deposits in the Bisbee area.
“The Gold Hill project results were well within mineable ore grades, says Thomas A. Parkhill, Teryl’s consulting geologist.
Teryl recently contracted with an independent drilling company to drill a minimum of three holes on high grade copper surface targets at the company’s Gold Hill property.
The three drill locations were selected from assays of rock samples collected on the properties, aeromagnetic survey interpretation and field examinations.
After the initial drilling, Teryl plans to further expand exploration of the Gold Hill project with the objective of establishing a definitive resource on the property.