Arizona Eagle Mining Corp. Emerges with High-Grade Arizona Gold and Manitoba Critical Minerals
By Peter Kennedy
Privately owned Arizona Copper and Gold Inc. is going public via a reverse takeover of Core Nickel Core Nickel Corp. [CNCO-TSXV], a move that will give investors exposure to high grade gold, silver and copper exploration in Arizona and critical minerals in Manitoba.
Subject to the approval of Core shareholders at a meeting on March 13 2026, the resulting issuer will change its name to Arizona Eagle Mining Corp. and trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol AZEM. The business will be primarily focused on the exploration and development of the company’s Eagle Project in Yavapai County, Arizona, with a specific focus on the past producing McCabe gold and silver mine. It will also continue to own Core’s strategic land portfolio in the Thompson Nickel Belt in northern Manitoba, including the Mel deposit.
Arizona Eagle Mining expects to have over CAD$4 million in the treasury after a recent issuance of 2.65 million subscription receipts priced at CAD$1.20. This financing raised gross proceeds of approximately, CAD$3.2 million. The offering was completed in connection with the proposed business combination that will see Core Nickel acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Arizona Copper and Gold (again, to be renamed Arizona Eagle Mining).
The amount raised, combined with funds on hand, will fund the CAD$3 million Phase 1 drilling program (4,500 metres) at the high-grade, past-producing McCabe gold mine at the company’s Eagle Project. The company will explore both the depth and strike extensions of the historic resource, as well the multiple nearby parallel and perpindicular structures.
Management and the board of directors have deep roots in capital markets, exploration and Arizona-specific, permitting. Reid is a geologist and former investment banker. Marc Pais, Chairman of Arizona Copper and Gold, is a geological engineer, ex-mining analyst and former CEO of Telegraph Gold and Arizona Metals. “Upon listing, we will have approximately, 50 million shares outstanding with management and the board owning about 27 million or 54%,’’ said Reid. The management and Board shares will be subject to a three year escrow.
The flagship Eagle Project is centered on the historic McCabe Gold Mine, which is located 1.5 hours north of Pheonix, just 30 minutes from Interstate 17, near the old mining town of Dewey-Humboldt. In the districts 150 year history, it has been a powerhouse for gold, silver, copper and zinc production. “We’ve got great access to power, water and a skilled mining workforce right there,’’ Reid said.
A sampling program completed by ACG in 2024 identified at least 12 mineralized zones and structures which had not been tested with modern exploration methods (including geophysics or drill testing). The Eagle Claims cover a broad area to the west, southwest and south of the historic Iron King volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) mine, with reported production of 5.7 million tonnes of grade 2.6 g/t gold, 91 g/t silver, 4.9% zinc, and 1.8% lead and 0.1% copper from 1903 to 1969.
The past-producing McCabe Mine hosts a historic resource of 878,000 ounces of gold grading 11.7 g/t and 5.0 million ounces of silver grading 69 g/t. The old mine is located on 87 acres of private land, but the Eagle Project has expanded its footprint to over 300 acres of private land for development. In addition, the company has acquired over 4,250 acres of Bureau of Land Management federal mining claims that are available for mineral exploration and development.
McCabe was active on and off from 1870 to the 1930s, then shut down during World War II, and stayed dormant for over 30 years. In the early 1980s, Stan West Mining, kicked off an exploration program, spending US$12 million on drilling. By 1984, they had established a resource estimate of 878,000 ounces of gold at 11.7 g/t and 5.0 million ounces of silver at 69 g/t. They then invested US$23 million to build a mill, sink a shaft (the “Sooner” shaft) and restart gold production. By 1986, they had produced 40,000 ounces of gold. Another 20,000 ounces was produced by 1987, before shutting down due to falling gold prices. Overall, about 60,000 ounces were extracted from the 1984 estimate, leaving an estimated 820,000 ounces of the historic estimate, in the ground.
While historic resource estimate is based on a vein structure that covers 800 metres of strike and 400 metres depth, it is not uncommon for mines, like the nearby Iron King mine, located just eight kilometres away, to exceed depths of 1,000 metres. Iron King was mined to a depth of 1,050 metres in similar rocks. “Stan West’s deepest drilling to a depth of only 440 metres ended in high grade mineralization, so we see the potential to more than double the size at depth,’’ said Reid.
“We’ve also extended the McCabe strike from 800 metres to what is estimated to be more than 2 kilometres through our own sampling and geophysics programs’’ he said. Another opportunity Reid explained, “is that at today’s prices, we have the potential to lower the cut-off grade that was used in the past. In the early 1980’s, at a gold price of US$350 per ounce, the historic estimate used a cut-off grade of 6.8 g/t gold. Today, with gold prices around US$5,000 per ounce, we see an opportunity to lower the cut-off grade, which has the potential to expand the resource.”
It is worth noting that ACG just completed a CAD$250,000 ground IP program to map these at depth, and last year’s CAD$300,000 airborne VTEM survey identified VMS targets both north and south of McCabe. These targets have similar signatures to the historic Iron King VMS deposit, which produced for nearly 100 years until 1969.
Reid said the combined company will also maintain optionality on the nickel assets in Manitoba. Core has assembled a property portfolio covering 27,000 hectares of highly prospective exploration ground in the Thompson Nickel Belt (TNB), where nickel and potentially PGM’s have historically been the focus.
All of its five properties are located in close proximity to key infrastructure, including highways, railways, major hydroelectric transmission lines and operating mills.
Core has a large contiguous land package in the northern part of the TNB, consisting of Mel Hunter and Odei River. The company also holds two properties (Halfway Lake and Resting Lake) in central TNB near Wawboden.
The company’s flagship asset is the 100%-owned Mel Deposit, one of the highest-grade undeveloped sulfide nickel deposits in North America (containing a historic resource estimate 5.3 million tonnes at 0.85% nickel. Mel is located only 25 kilometres from Vale’s 12,000 tonne per day Thompson mill).
Exploration in Manitoba has been focused on increasing the supply of responsibly sourced Canadian critical minerals to support a net-zero, carbon-neutral, future. When the proposed RTO was announced in September 2025, Core Nickel had 53.9 million shares issued and outstanding. The shares were priced at CAD$0.14 when trading was halted pending a review of the RTO transaction by the TSXV and satisfaction of conditions of the TSXV for resumption. On February 18, 2026, Core and Arizona Copper and Gold announced the companies had signed a definitive agreement to complete the RTO transaction, and also received conditional approval from the Toronto Venture Exchange to list under the symbol AZEM. The shareholder meetings to approve the transaction are both scheduled for March 13th, 2026, with trading expected to commence shortly thereafter.
The historical estimates for the McCabe Deposit predates and is unclassified and not compliant with NI 43-101 guidelines. Significant data compilation, re-drilling, re-sampling and data verification may be required by a Qualified Person before the historic resource can be verified and upgraded to be compliant with current NI 43-101 standards. The Company’s QP has not yet undertaken sufficient work to classify the historic estimate as a current resource and the Company is not treating the historic estimate as a current resource.