First Copper at Johnson Camp Establishes Gunnison Copper as America’s Newest Producer

Disseminated on behalf of Gunnison Copper Corp.

By Peter Kennedy

Gunnison Copper Corp. [GCU-TSX, GCUMF-OTCQB, FSE-3XS0] (“Gunnison” or the “Company”) is pursuing a multi-asset copper production strategy in the United States, a country that is offering incentives to the mining sector in a bid to boost domestic supply of the strategic red metal.

Gunnison’s two key assets, the recently started Johnson Camp mine and flagship Gunnison project, are both located just 2 miles apart in the Cochise Mining District in Arizona, where the company also controls 10 known satellite deposits.

Having recently begun production at Johnson Camp, the company is establishing itself as a pure-play copper company, one that is led by an experienced management team, headed by CEO Stephen Twyerould, who has to 30 plus years of experience in the mining industry. and Craig Hallworth, Senior Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer, who previously led all financial aspects of Hudbay’s [HBM-TSX, NYSE] Copper World Project, which is also located in Arizona. “We are extremely bullish on copper,” Hallworth told Resource World during a recent interview. “The price can only go higher long term,” he said. Optimism is based on copper’s designation as a critical mineral and the key role the metal is expected to play in the electrification of the global economy.

The company’s Johnson Camp Mine is backed by Nuton LLC (“Nuton”), a division of Rio Tinto Plc [RIO-NYSE], and the U.S. Department of Energy, which has granted Gunnison US$13.9 million worth of tax credits to help the company expand “Made in America” copper production at Johnson Camp.

The 48C tax credit is part of the US$10 billion in funding under the Inflation Reduction act of 2022 to intensify clean energy manufacturing and recycling, industrial decarbonization and critical materials projects in the United States.

Nuton, fully funded construction at Johnson Camp, which will be the first mine in history to operate as a demonstration of its sulfide heap leaching technology.

Nuton holds an extensive portfolio of advanced copper leaching technologies targeted at primary sulfide minerals (including lower grade mineral deposits), which could not otherwise be processed economically using traditional leaching or sulfide processing technologies.

One of the key differentiators of Nuton is the potential to deliver leading environmental performance, including more efficient water usage, lower carbon emissions, and the ability to reclaim mine sites by reprocessing mine waste.

The result of over 30 years of research, Nuton provides Gunnison with the ability to produce copper cathodes that are readily available on site, a scenario that has enabled the company to comply with the U.S. government’s critical minerals strategy by supplying copper directly into the U.S. market.

Gunnison began production at Johnson Camp ahead of schedule with an exceptional safety record. The plant has capacity to produce 25 million pounds of copper annually. It is worth noting that copper was trading at US$4.46 a pound on August 18, 2025.

Gunnison is also working to develop a second key copper asset, the flagship Gunnison Project which was previously promoted as a low-cost in-situ recovery copper extraction project but is now being developed as a conventional operation with open pit mining, heap leach, and SX-EW refinery to produce finished copper cathode on site with a direct rail link.

The previous pursuit of in-situ mining and the recent pivot to open pit mining, announced with a PEA last November has created an incredible opportunity for investors that are new to the story as the company trades at a low price to net asset value vs its peers.

The Gunnison project has a measured and indicated resource containing over 831 million tons with a total copper grade of 0.31%. That includes a measured resource of 191.3 million tons at 0.37% copper and an indicated resource of 640.2 million tons at a grade of 0.29% copper. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability

Production at the Gunnison project is targeted to start around the end of this decade. However, before that happens, Hallworth said it is highly likely that Gunnison will bring in a strategic partner to help develop the project.

In a press release on November 2024, the company announced the results of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the Gunnison project, which has been described as one of the most substantial copper projects in the U.S., one that could potentially account for 8% of refined copper production in the U.S based on 2024 statistics.

The PEA envisages average annual copper cathode production of 83,700 tons (167 million pounds) over the first 16 years and total production of 2.7 billion pounds over the entire 18-year mine life at an average cash cost of US$1.42 a pound and sustaining cash cost of US$1.94 a pound. The November PEA pegs the after-tax NPV (8%) at $1.3 billion, using a copper price of $4.10/lb, and after-tax payback period of 4.1 years. The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is no certainty that the conclusions reached in the PEA will be realized.

However, the company is working to complete an updated PEA, likely to be released early in 2026, which will include the results of the High-Value-Add work programs underway that are expected to deliver improved economics, including a lower capital cost.

As it stands, the company says Gunnison will benefit the local community and greater Arizona economy, creating over 650 direct jobs. Indirect jobs will also be created in addition to the ~US$280 million in revenues to local, state and federal tax.

Other significant deposits controlled by Gunnison in the Cochise Mining district have the potential to be economic satellite feeder deposits for Gunnison Project infrastructure. They include Strong and Harris and nine other deposits. Additionally, an exploration partnership with Rio Tinto (in relation to potentially finding the porphyry source of the satellite deposits) is currently being considered.

Meanwhile, the PEA announcement and the abandonment of the in-situ recovery development plan has helped to boost the share price from around 14 cents last November (2025) to a recent high of 40 cents. On September 2, 2025, the shares were trading at 26 cents in a 52-week range of 44 cents and 10 cents, leaving Gunnison with a market cap of C$97 million based on 360 million shares outstanding. Greenstone Resources LP, a private equity fund, currently holds about 40% of the shares outstanding, along with a growing number of institutions from recent financings.

To learn more about Gunnison Copper, subscribe to their news at www.gunnisoncopper.com and follow them on social media.

For additional information on the Gunnison Project, including the PEA and mineral resource estimate, please refer to the Company’s technical report entitled “Gunnison Project NI 43-101 Technical Report Preliminary Economic Assessment” dated effective November 1, 2024 and available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca. Dr. Stephen Twyerould, Fellow of AUSIMM, President and CEO of the Company is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Dr. Twyerould has reviewed and is responsible for the technical information contained in this report.