Gunnison Copper Company (TSX: GCU; OTCCP: Jecomf; FSE: 3XS0) reported that there is a major, region-wide drilling program at the Gunnison Copper Project, including the Strong & Harris satellite deposit, located in Arizona’s Cochise Mining District.
The full drilling program has now been contracted and committed, and the rig preparation process is expected to begin this month. The program consists of up to 120 drill holes totaling approximately 138,000 ft (42,000 m) of drilling and is designed to support ongoing Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) work program activities, resource expansion, mineralogy and resource conversion across the Company’s region-wide copper assets.
“We are moving forward with a great sense of urgency to achieve our vision of strengthening America’s security and prosperity by working to rapidly increase domestic copper supplies,” said Craig Hallworth, President and CEO of Gunnison Copper. “This program is designed not only to add more copper to our flagship project, but also to support mineralogy and resource diversion needed to support mineral reserves at our planned PFS project.”
Work will begin with mineral enhancement drilling using two rigs until a new, larger core processing and storage facility is completed, expected during the third quarter of 2026, after which the company plans to increase drilling capacity to up to six rigs. The total direct cost of the drilling and associated laboratory testing program is estimated at $15.0 million, excluding employee salaries, with initial results expected within six months and full results within 12 to 15 months.
The mining program is expected to include up to 36 drill holes totaling approximately 33,000 ft (10,000 m) of representative samples across the Gunnison, Strong & Harris deposits.
The goal is to provide additional samples for ongoing metallurgical testing work, engineering studies and mine planning activities that support the Company’s PFS work program and allow for initiatives. This includes a material increase in column leaching tests, which are the industry standard for predicting and optimizing large-scale copper pile leaching. Up to 270 column filtration tests are scheduled to be conducted over the next 12 months.
Following completion of the initial mineral drilling phase, the company will focus on a comprehensive resource drilling program expected to include up to 84 drill holes totaling approximately 105,000 ft (32,000 m).
The objectives of the resource drilling program include expanding the resource by testing known extensions of mineralization and identifying new areas of mineralization; Upgrading inferred mineral resources to measured and indicated categories; Identifying further mineralization boundaries at both the Gunnison and Strong & Harris deposits; and evaluate the continuity of the Gunnison mineralized system at depth.
The Gunnison Copper Project and the Strong & Harris satellite repository form part of the region-wide land package at Gunnison in Arizona’s southern Copper Belt. The Company believes there remains significant opportunities to expand and further define mineralization across multiple deposits located within economic trucking distance of the planned processing infrastructure.
Gunnison Copper is a multi-asset copper developer and producer, controlling the Cochise Mining District (the District), containing 12 known deposits within an 8 km economic radius, in the southern Arizona copper belt.
Its flagship asset, the Gunnison Copper Project, contains a major pit of measured and indicated mineral resources containing over 846 million tonnes with an aggregate copper grade of 0.33% (measured mineral resources of 192 million tonnes grading 0.37% and indicated mineral resources of 655 million tonnes grading 0.31%).
The Strong & Harris satellite deposit, located approximately 1.9 miles from the Gunnison processing facilities, is also included in the mine plan and hosts an inferred mineral resource of 76 million tons grading 0.49% total copper (0.32% CuOx) at a cut of 0.07%, 0.56% zinc and 0.12% silver, containing approximately 740 million pounds of copper, including 483 million pounds of copper oxide. As well as zinc (856 million pounds sterling) and silver (9.0 million ounces).
A Preliminary Economic Evaluation (PEA) was completed in March 2026 for the Gunnison project resulting in strong economics including an 8% net present value of $2 billion, an internal rate of return of 23%, and a payback period of 3.9 years. It is being developed as a conventional process involving open pit mining, heap leaching, and an SX/EW refinery to produce the final on-site copper cathode with a direct rail connection.
The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative in geological terms to be applied to economic considerations that would enable them to be classified as mineral reserves. There is no certainty that the conclusions reached in the PEA will be achieved. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves have not proven their economic viability.
In addition, Gunnison’s Johnson Camp assets, which are now in production, are fully financed by Nuton LLC, a Rio Tinto Venture company, with a production capacity of 25 million pounds of finished copper cathode per year.
Other important Gunnison-controlled deposits in the area, which are likely to be economic feeder deposits for the Gunnison project infrastructure, include South Star and eight other deposits.
