CopperBank Resources Corp. Nov. 28 said this year's rock and soil sampling program at San Diego Bay is a good first step in understanding the porphyry copper-gold potential of this project on the Alaska Peninsula.

Geologists collected 37 grab rock samples and 173 soil samples during the summer program at San Diego Bay.

The soil samples were collected over three areas: San Diego Bay in the southeast; Renshaw Point on the eastern side of the property, and an area near Balboa Bay on the western side of the property.

The best values came from around Balboa Bay where a copper-gold-molybdenum-silver anomaly was traced for 2,700 meters along a northeast trend and an apparent average width of 500 meters. This area covers the gold bearing Oh Boy Vein in its southwestern part. CopperBank said the metal assemblage identified could reflect the presence of a porphyry-style mineralization.

The area sampled near an intrusion at Renshaw Point revealed a soil anomaly of nearly 400 meters in length returning silver values averaging more than 1 gram per metric ton and local gold values over 0.2 g/t along the intrusive contact. The company said more work will be necessary to see if the anomaly is due to the presence of epithermal veins.

The tested area around an intrusion of San Diego Bay returned a single gold anomalous sample and no significant values for other metals of interest.

"The 2017 exploration campaign at San Diego Bay suggests that significant copper and gold mineralization could be present at depth, such as at Pyramid located 10 kilometers (six miles) to the west," said CopperBank Executive Chairman Gianni Kovacevic.

Results from this year's program will be used to orient future work programs.

CopperBank has commissioned a technical report for San Diego Bay, which will be augmented by a planned structural and hyperspectral study.

-SHANE LASLEY