Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Vancouver, B.C.: Bell Copper Corporation ("Bell Copper" or the "Company") (TSX-V Symbol: BCU) announces an increase in the amount being raised by way of issuance of secured convertible debentures (the "Debentures") from $1,000,000 to $1,500,000. The increased amount will be utilized to drill the Company's Kabba porphyry target in Mohave County, Arizona. The Company also plans to evaluate the precious metal potential of its Kabba claims before the end of 2008.

The Kabba porphyry project is located approximately 19 miles southeast of Kingman and 150 miles northwest of Phoenix. On the western edge of the Kabba prospect, a very large Laramide-age porphyry Mo/Cu deposit crops out. This porphyry intrusion, measuring 12 miles long by 1.5 miles wide, has been thoroughly explored by the likes of Union Carbide Corporation, AMAX, Cerromin, Conoco, Hanna, Kerr-McGee, Santa Fe, and Noranda. The efforts of these companies demonstrated the intense alteration, quartz veining, and highly anomalous molybdenum and copper contents typical of major porphyry copper deposits. The known, outcropping parts of this porphyry copper system appear to be an exposure of a deep level of the original porphyry system, deeper than where the richest deposits of copper would be expected. A major fault located on the west edge of the Kabba prospect separates this deep porphyry exposure from a down-dropped block that may contain the richer copper-bearing parts of this porphyry system, directly underneath the Kabba prospect.

The Kabba target has geological similarities to some of the larger known porphyries including Bingham Canyon, El Teniente and Resolution. Detailed work programs at the Kabba project including mapping, geophysics, geochemistry and drilling, support Bell Copper's proposition that a truncated, major Mo-Cu porphyry system lies under shallow cover on its land holdings at Kabba.

Integration of surface data with Diamond drill data provide a 15 square kilometer target area extending from the last drill hole (K-4) to newly mapped outcrops showing porphyry intrusions, sericitic alteration, and Mo-Cu-As-Se mineralization. Key observations that support the target concept are summarized as follows:

• Detailed geologic mapping shows quartz porphyry intrusions on the extreme western edge of the bedrock exposures in the hangingwall block of the faulted porphyry Mo-Cu system. The quartz porphyries are sericitically altered, and may be the shallowly emplaced equivalents of the quartz monzonite porphyry that hosts molybdenum-copper-tungsten mineralization in the footwall block.
• Aeromagnetic surveying shows a distinct low anomaly coincident with hydrothermal alteration in and around the quartz porphyries. The low magnetic intensity in this area is believed to reflect sulfidation of primary magnetite, which is otherwise common in the Precambrian host rocks outside of the area of hydrothermal alteration.
• Geochemical analyses of approx. 1400 outcropping mineralized veinlets in the hangingwall show clustering of elevated copper-molybdenum-arsenic-selenium values in and around the quartz porphyry intrusions.
• Mineralized veinlets in the hangingwall of the Kabba porphyry system (core and outcrops) are exceptionally enriched in nickel relative to other large porphyry systems. Many veinlets carry several hundred parts per million nickel, about one order of magnitude higher than even Ni-rich porphyries like Bingham and El Teniente.
• The presence of minor lamprophyre and ultramafic biotite minette dikes spatially and temporally related to the Kabba porphyry system supports a direct contribution to the system by mantle-derived melts, a feature regarded by some geologists to favor higher than average metal endowments, e.g. Bingham and El Teniente.
• Fluorine mineralization (fluorite) is common at Kabba and is genetically linked to porphyry molybdenum-copper mineralization. Elevated fluorine is a distinctive characteristic of both the Resolution porphyry and its neighbor, the Pinto Valley porphyry in Arizona.
• Seismic reflection profiling has shown that the Hualapai Fault cuts the Kabba porphyry at a surprisingly shallow 30-35�. Reconstruction of a postmineral olivine basalt found on both sides of the fault suggests that the more prospective, shallow part of the Kabba porphyry system lies about 5.6 kilometers east of the greisenous quartz monzonite porphyry root zone of the system.
• The root zone of the porphyry system measures about 3 kilometers in an east-west direction by 5 kilometers in a north-south direction. These dimensions are comparable to the world's largest porphyry systems.
• Drilling by the Company confirmed the shallow dip of the Hualapai Fault and in hole (K-4) cut more than 900 meters of variably sericitized rocks, including 20 andesite porphyry dikes. Mineralization in the drillhole included multiple molybdenite-bearing quartz veins, local arsenic-rich pyritic breccia, and common disseminated fluorite mineralization. These strong mineralogical and geological similarities with the footwall outcrops more than 5 kilometers to the west make it likely that K-4 penetrated the hangingwall of the dismembered Kabba porphyry system. The thickness of cover rocks at the K-4 site was only 100 meters, suggesting that most of the 15-square kilometer target area will also be under relatively shallow cover.
• Drillhole K-4 is located 2.4 kilometers northwest of the quartz porphyry intrusions found in outcrop in the hangingwall bedrock exposures. Potentially mineralized rocks in the intervening ground are obscured by relatively thin postmineral volcanic rocks and conglomerate.
• Night time prospecting with ultraviolet light shows powellite (calcium molybdate) and scheelite (calcium tungstate) veinlets in the hangingwall bedrock exposures closest to the target area, providing yet another mineralogical link with the footwall fault block.

The Company also plans to begin to evaluate the precious metal potential of its claims surrounding the historically productive Kabba Mine, which is not held by the Company. According to files maintained by the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources, the Kabba Mine produced in the early 1900s approximately 50,000 tons of ore grading approximately 1 troy ounce of gold per ton. The Company has done no independent work to confirm the accuracy of this historical record, nor does the Company rely on this historical production figure. Geological mapping by geologist Rex Evatt III, a consultant to the Company, in the eastern part of the Company's claims resulted in the recognition of visible gold hosted by quartz veinlets within what appears to be a strike extension of the same mineralized fault system that hosted the gold at the Kabba Mine. Followup sampling of this mineralized structure is planned for the final weeks of 2008. This gold mineralization is believed to be genetically related to the outer fringes of the Kabba porphyry Mo/Cu system.

For the purposes of this news release, the Qualified Person is Timothy Marsh, Ph.D., P.Eng., the Company's Vice President of Exploration.

The Debentures will have a two-year term and bear interest at 1% per month payable in common shares of the Company. The Debentures will be convertible into units (the "Units") at a conversion price of $0.05 per Unit at any time prior to expiry. Each Unit will consist of one common share and one share purchase warrant of the Company exercisable at a price of $0.10 per common share for two years from closing. The Debentures will be secured by General Security Agreement.

Up to 30,000,000 common shares of Bell Copper will be reserved for issuance as the maximum number of securities issuable upon conversion of the Debentures. Any securities issued upon conversion of the Debenture will be subject to a four month hold period. The Company will pay a cash commission to various finders in accordance with the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. This financing is subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

About Bell Copper

Bell Copper is focused on the exploration and development of copper assets in the Americas through internal efforts and via strategic partnerships.

More information on Bell Copper: www.bellcopper.net

On behalf of the Board of Directors of
Bell Copper Corporation

"Brian Leeners"

Brian Leeners, CFO & Director

For further information please contact the Company
Tel: 604 669-1484 or email: info@bellcopper.net


THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the 'safe harbor' provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties

You can also view this News Release on our website at:
http://www.bellcopper.net/s/News_Releases.asp?ReportID=332157