US Copper Commences Metallurgical Studies on its Moonlight-Superior Copper Project
US Copper Commences Metallurgical Studies on its Moonlight-Superior
Copper Project
TORONTO, CANADA, September 3, 2025 – US Copper Corp., (“ US Copper ” or the
“Company”) (TSX-V: USCU, FSE: C73) is pleased to announce that it has engaged Libertas
Metallurgy Limited (“ Libertas”) to review all the metallurgical work to date and make
recommendations for any metallur gical testwork required for the planned Pre-Feasibility Study
(“PFS”) at its Moonlight-Superior Mining property (“ Moonlight”), located in Plumas County,
California.
Libertas was founded in 2017 to provide metallurgical consultin g services to the global minerals
and mining industry. Their area of expertise is in flotation, leaching, process design and cost
reduction as it relates to managing technical studies and process development and operations.
Libertas’s President & Principal Metallurgist, David Middleditch has over 20 years experience in
the field of metallurgy and mineral processing. Dave has worked at Falconbridge (now Glencore)
in Sudbury, Ontario as a metallurg ist and managed the mineral p rocessing laboratory, prior to
joining Hudson’s Bay Mining and Smelting Co. in Flin Flon, Mani toba as Lead Metallurgist for
the Lalor Project. He has also worked on copper projects in C hile, Norway, Mexico and Serbia.
The project will be supported by John Wells, an industry leadin g specialist in copper oxide
processing and has authored over 12 technical papers while also working on numerous projects in
Chile and Peru.
Libertas will provide the following services to US Copper durin g the initial review of our
metallurgical work to date:
1. Review all met work done to date and make recommendations for P FS metallurgical
testwork;
2. determine whether additional dril ling is required before PFS me tallurgical testwork can
commence;
3. Provide guidance on PFS metallurg ical sample selection i.e. req uired number of holes,
quantities of sample, number of composites and discrete, variability samples etc.;
4. Design of PFS metallurgical test work program for the oxide and sulphide resources
providing the basis and outline for third party metallurgical l aboratories to provide quotes
for PFS testwork; and
5. Issue RFPs to selected testwork laboratories, review and adjudicate bids.
Stephen Dunn, CEO of US Copper, commented, "I am very pleased to welcome Libertas to the
Moonlight project. Their expertise in metallurg y and, specifically, the far-reaching experience of
David Middleditch and John Wells with copper processing will be very beneficial to US Copper
as we advance our metallurgical work at Moonlight.
The year 2025 has been a very positive one for US Copper as we released the updated results from
our Preliminary Economic Assessment (“ PEA”) in January. We are also strategically aligned
with the United States of America (“ USA”) administration which both recocognizes the
importance of domestic copper production in the USA AND has issued executive orders aimed at
speeding up the permitting of natural resources development in the USA.
USCU is now focused on taking the next steps required to begin a PFS for our project. In
preparation for this we have started this metallurgical study and will soon begin baseline studies.
We are also designing a deep drilling program to expand the resources at Moonlight. Our project
has three deposits that are all at surface, are very shallow and all all open at depth. We are ready
to add to our knowledge of the mineralogy undern eath. (The average drill hole depth is 450 feet
(“ft”), across 500 holes yet we know Engels was mined to a depth of 2400 ft in 1929.}
“Copper is a key component in a wide range of energy technologies and is designated as a Critical
Mineral by the USA government. Copper is a critical material for an extensive range of important
applications ranging from renewable power generation to electric vehicles. As such, it is vital that
the USA has a strong and viable domestic source of copper supply.”
About US Copper Corp.
US Copper controls approximately 10 square miles of patented an d unpatented federal mining
claims in the Light’s Creek Copper District in Plumas County, NE California; essentially, the entire
District. The District contains s ubstantial copper (silver) sul fide and copper oxide resources in
three deposits – Moonlight, Superior and Engels, as well as sev eral partially tested and untested
exploration targets.
The Superior and Engels Mines operated from about 1915 to 1930 producing over 161 million
pounds of copper from over 4 million tons of rock containing 2. 2% copper with silver and gold
credits.
The Moonlight deposit was discove red by Placer Amex during the 1960s and a resource was
calculated after the drilling of over 400 holes. A development decision was made but then put on
hold in 1972 when copper prices were weak. US Copper has owned the project since 2013 and has
advanced the project with three different drill programs and a number of engineering studies.
US Copper recently reported an after-tax NPV of US$1.075 billio n in a PEA prepared by Global
Resource Engineering Ltd (“ GRE”) dated Dec 16, 2024 with a life of mine production of 1.8
billion pounds of copper (See news release dated Jan 6, 2025).
GRE calculated a new mineral resource for the purposes of this PEA that included all recent drill
programs on the property. This resource is summarized below:
Mass
(million
tons)
Total 402.83 0.31 2,533,771 1.85 21,692,531 0.012 140,042
Total 64.59 0.31 394,199 0.77 1,448,154 0.005 9,440
Table 1: Moonlight Superior Mineral Resource Estimate
Ag Grade
(ppm)
Ag Content
(troy oz.)
Au Grade
(ppm)
Au
Content
(troy oz.)
Indicated
Inferred
Cu Grade
(%)
Cu
Content
('000 lb)
Notes:
1. The effective date of the Mineral Resource is December 16, 2024.
2. The Qualified Person for the Mineral Resource Estimate is Terre Lane of GRE.
3. Mineral resources are reported at a 0.16% Cu cutoff for oxide a nd transition material and at a 10.45 NSR cutoff for sulfide
material. The oxide and transition cutoff is calculated based o n a long‐term copper price of US$4.00/lb; assumed combined
operating costs of US$7.50/ton (process and G&A); metallurgical recovery of 75% for copper. The sulfide cutoff is calculated
as the breakeven NSR, which is equal to the combined process and G&A costs for the sulfide material.
Further details of this Resource, and the Preliminary Economic Assessment NI43-101 Technical
Report on the Moonlight-Superior Project, Plumas County, California, USA with an effective date
of December 16, 2024 can be found on Sedar+ at sedarplus.ca or at the Company’s website at
www.uscoppercorp.com.
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 under CIM Definition Standards. Readers are advised
that there is no certainty that the results projected in this preliminary economic assessment will be
realized.
For Further Information Contact:
Mr. Stephen Dunn, President, CEO and Director, US Copper Corp. (416) 361-2827 or email
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in
the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of
this press release.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian
and U.S. securities laws and regulations, including statements regarding the future activities of
the Company. Forward-looking statements refle ct the current beliefs and expectations of
management and are identified by the use of wo rds including “will”, “hopes”, “anticipates”,
“expected to”, “plans”, “planned” and other similar words. Actual results may differ
significantly. The achievement of the results expressed in forward-looking statements is subject to
a number of risks, including those described in the Company’s management discussion and
analysis as filed with the Canadi an securities regulatory author ities which are available at
www.sedarplus.ca. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon forward-looking
statements.