en.Wedoany.com Reported - Gunnison Copper Corp. (TSX:GCU) recently submitted a technical report, completing an updated Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for its namesake copper project located in Arizona, USA. The assessment results show that the project has an after-tax net present value of $2 billion (approximately $2.89 billion at current exchange rates), an internal rate of return of 22.5%, a payback period of 3.9 years, with a base copper price set at $4.60 per pound.

The project is located 65 miles east of Tucson, Arizona, on the southeastern side of the Little Dragoon Mountains in the Cochise Mining District, belonging to the Arizona Copper Porphyry Belt. Headquartered in Canada, Gunnison Copper Corp. focuses on mineral resource development, and this project is a core asset of the company.

According to the assessment report, the Gunnison project employs conventional open-pit mining and heap leaching processes. For the first 15 years, the average annual copper cathode production is projected to reach 174 million pounds, accounting for over 11% of the current total domestic mined copper production in the United States. Over the 21-year mining life, total copper production is estimated to be 3.2 billion pounds. The project will produce copper cathodes with a purity of 99.999%, primarily targeting the U.S. energy, data center, manufacturing, and defense supply chains.

In terms of cost data, the cash cost is $1.70 per pound, the sustaining cash cost is $2.00 per pound, and the all-in sustaining cash cost is $2.05 per pound. This cost level places it in the lower half of the global copper mine cost curve.

The project's mining plan primarily focuses on oxidized copper mineralization material, with a total heap leach processing volume of 51 million tons and an average copper grade of 0.43%. This includes 25 million tons of ore from the Strong & Harris satellite deposit, with an elevated copper grade of 0.85%. Gunnison Copper Corp. stated that the project's mining plan is straightforward in design, and its resource endowment provides a foundation for large-scale development.

Public information indicates that this updated PEA for the Gunnison project is a key technical milestone in advancing the project. The company plans to further promote technical studies and optimize engineering design plans based on the assessment results. If the project ultimately proceeds to the development stage, it is expected to become a significant domestic copper raw material supply base in the United States, supporting the raw material demand for new energy transition and critical infrastructure construction.

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