Upcoming Campaign At The Engels Deposit In California

TORONTO - US Copper Corp has signed a drilling contract with Timberline Drilling Inc. to drill a minimum of 10,000 feet (ft) at the Engels deposit, part of US Copper's Moonlight-Superior Copper Project in Plumas County, California. This drill program will target an 800 ft by 400 ft by 700 ft envelope of open-pit grade copper mineralization surrounding the historic underground Engels Mine. This mineralization was initially recognized in underground drill holes during the 1915-1930 mining operation but was considered too low-grade for exploitation in an underground mine. More recent historical surface drilling, which was primarily focused on defining shallow copper oxide mineralization, encountered substantial thicknesses of good open pit grade copper sulfide mineralization.

"This mineralization is not closed off in any direction and has the potential to be a stand-alone, open pit copper mine on its own," said, Stephen Dunn, President and CEO. "In conjunction with the Moonlight deposit and the Superior deposit, which was enhanced by last year's drill program, the combined 3-pit resource has the potential to be a long-lived profitable mining operation. Drilling is scheduled to start in the spring based on drill rig availability."

The Engels copper deposit is located about 6,000 ft (1,830 meters (m)) east of our Moonlight deposit and 11,000 ft (335 m) north of the Superior deposit. Engels was mined in the 1915-1930 period, yielding approximately 2.7 million tons at a grade of 2.2 % copper. Mine workings are extensive and include many tens of thousands of feet of drifts, crosscuts, and stopes on ten levels accessed by adits and six levels accessed from a winze sunk from the No. 10 level.

Geologically, the Engels deposit lies outside the eastern margin of the Lights Creek quartz monzonite stock in an area of gabbroic intrusives and metavolcanic roof pendants. Engels is structurally-controlled in a shear zone striking northeast and dipping steeply. Mined and processed ore occurs in an 800 ft by 60 ft (240 m by 20 m) pipe like zone and is associated with breccias that exhibit features characteristic of both intrusion and hydrothermal breccia. Narrow high-grade ore shoots were mined to depths of up to 2,000 ft (600 m), and historical drilling indicates that good grade mineralization extends at least another 300 ft (91 m) down ~2,300 ft (670 m) below surface (16th level). The principal sulfide ore minerals are bornite and chalcopyrite, and copper grades exceeding 15% Cu have been encountered in several 6.5 ft (2 m) core intercepts. Remaining known significant copper mineralization from historical workings and drill holes varies from 0.2% Cu to well over 1.0%.

Copper mineralization at Engels is strongly oxidized to depths >230 ft (70 m) over an area of at least~1,000 ft by >300 ft. Assay analysis for sulfuric acid soluble copper in a portion of samples from the post-2004 drilling indicate copper oxides represent 90% of total copper within these depths. Copper oxide minerals consist primarily as malachite with lesser chryscolla and azurite.

US Copper had a Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") prepared on its Moonlight deposit in 2018 that showed positive economics at $3.15 copper. It was determined that providing higher grade ore from our Superior and/or Engels deposits into the Moonlight mine plan would substantially enhance the Project's economics by increasing cash flows in the initial years of production. The recently completed drill program at Superior was designed specifically for that purpose, and this Engels drill program will outline a second starter pit for the Moonlight plant. Ultimately, the updated Engels and Superior resources will be incorporated into a revised Moonlight PEA.