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Wed May 26, 2010.
Bellhaven Hires Vice President of Exploration and General Country Manager for Colombia
Key people now in place to execute on exploration programs in Panama & Colombia
Panama, Rep. of Panamá – May 26, 2010. Bellhaven Copper & Gold Inc. (TSX-Venture: BHV) (“Bellhaven” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the appointments of Mr. Eugenio Espada to the position of vice president of exploration and Ms. Adriana Delgado to the position of general country manager for Colombia. The hiring of Mr. Espada represents the third major appointment to senior management this month. Together with the signing of Ms. Delgado, these additions enable the Company to execute more fully on its new exploration strategy as first discussed in the March 26 press release.
Mr. Espada brings a wealth of experience, technical expertise, and “know how” to exploration and project development after having worked 23 years with the world’s largest exploration/mining companies throughout the Americas and Europe, including Newmont Mining, Barrick Gold, Vale (formerly CVRD), BHP-Billiton, AngloGold-Ashanti, and Rio Tinto. Mr. Espada offers to Bellhaven highly relevant experience in Colombia where he introduced and established Barrick Gold’s operations in Colombia in 2006 and operated as exploration and general country manager in 2007-2008. Mr. Espada also served as senior regional geologist for greenfields exploration for AngloGold-Ashanti in 2005. His deep understanding of porphyry and epithermal deposits also will be a key asset to the exploration programs related to Bellhaven’s gold prospects located on the Azuero Peninsula of Panama. Mr. Espada earned a five-year B.Sc. degree from the University of Lisbon, Portugal.
Ms. Delgado possesses a wealth of business and organization skills as it relates to mineral exploration after working five years for Barrick Gold, Minas Buenaventura, and AngloGold-Ashanti in Colombia, Mexico, and Chile. She was instrumental in assisting Mr. Espada in setting up the Barrick office in Colombia. Earlier, she was the project manager of the La Mina gold-(copper) project (Bellhaven’s recently announced acquisition; see press release dated May 17PthP) for AngloGold-Ashanti during the 2006 drilling campaign. Ms. Delgado completed her undergraduate studies in 2004 at the National University of Colombia (Bogota) and postgraduate studies in mineral economics in 2009 at the University of Chile (Santiago).
Paul Zweng, Bellhaven’s Interim CEO and Director, commented as follows:
“The hiring of Eugenio Espada and Adriana Delgado represents a key milestone regarding the assembling of a highly competitive exploration team for Bellhaven. We are very pleased to Page 2 have Eugenio direct our explora tion efforts. He is bright, ac complished, and very motivated. During our reference checks it was not unc ommon for people to say that Eugenio’s knowledge of the regional geology and mineral deposits of Colombia is unmatched.”
“Further, Eugenio and Adriana cem ent Bellhaven’s position in Colom bia where we recently acquired the La Mina porphyry Au-(Cu) prospect . They have known e ach other for years, after having worked together at AngloGold- Ashanti and more recen tly with Barrick, where they both gained valuable insight and practical experience in establishing and directing the exploration efforts for the world’s largest go ld producer. T hese appointments bring a well- coordinated team to Bellhaven especially consid ering that both have wo rked at La Mina in the past thus allowing Bellhaven to advance quickly its exploration program there.”
“Adriana is polished, exceedingly organized, and persistent. She brings, am ong other things, a high degree of preparation, structure, and highly relevant in-country experience to Bellhaven. I look forward to Bellhaven benefiting from her dedication and work ethic.”
Eugenio Espada, Vice President of Exploration, commented as follows:
“One of the m ain reasons I am attracted to Bellhaven is the opportuni ty to test the upside potential of the La Mina prospect, a classi cal gold-copper porphyry system located in an emerging world-class gold belt. A dding to the excitement is the portfolio of under-explored high-sulphidation epithermal gold prospects controlled by Bellhaven in Panama.”
“Bellhaven has assem bled an excep tional team of exploration geologist s and I look forward to leading this team to deliver significant exploration successes in Colombia and Panama.”
Adriana Delgado, General Country Manager for Colombia, commented as follows:
“Being part of a highly qualifie d and m otivated team represents an honor and a challenge. The shared comm itment to continuous im provement and working together toward the sam e goal will drive Bellhaven to a leading position in the industry”.
About Bellhaven:
Bellhaven Copper & Gold Inc., is a Canadian -listed (TSX-V: BHV) exploration com pany exploring for gold and copper in Panam a and Colombia. The Com pany’s objective is to become a mong the best gold-copper com panies operating in Panama and Colombia by discovering, acquiring, and deve loping high-quality resources in a safe and responsible manner to the benefit of all of its stakeholders.
The Company’s principal assets include the La Mina porphyry gold-(c opper) project in the Middle Cauca belt of Colombia, the high-sulphidation epithermal gold-(copper) and porphyry copper prospects located on the Azuero Peninsula in Panama, and the La Ventura prospect in the San Lucas gold belt in northeastern Colombia. In addition, Bellhaven controls 100% of the Cerro Quema gold-(copper) project also located on the Azuero Peninsula in Panama. The Company announced a letter of intent (LOI) with Pershimco Resources (TSX-V: PRO) on January 4PthP, 2010, to develop Cerro Quema, whereby Pershimco can earn up to a 75% equity interest in the project, through payments and project spending of US$18.5 million, and can acquire an additional 10% interest for US$5 million.
On behalf of the board of directors,
Paul L. Zweng, CEO & Director
BELLHAVEN COPPER & GOLD INC.
Corporate Contact in North America: Corporate Contact in Panama:
Paul Zweng, CEO/Director Julio Benedetti, President/Director
+1-808-377-1947 Int’l No: +507-226-3967
For more information, please visit the Company’s web site at www.bellhavencg.com
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release
