Dr. Roland Goodgame reports

GUNNISON COPPER REPORTS POSITIVE RESULTS FROM INITIAL MINERAL SORTING "HIGH-VALUE-ADD" WORK PROGRAM AT THE GUNNISON COPPER PROJECT IN SOUTHEAST ARIZONA

Gunnison Copper Corp. has released encouraging results from its initial mineralized material sorting test program at the flagship Gunnison copper project in southeastern Arizona, one of the largest and most advanced copper development projects in the United States.

"These initial results are extremely encouraging, showing the potential to significantly reduce acid consumption while maintaining copper recovery," stated Dr. Roland Goodgame, Gunnison's senior vice-president of business development. "This type of high-value-add program can materially improve the project's already-robust economics and feed directly into our upcoming update to our preliminary economic assessment and planned prefeasibility study. These results support Gunnison's vision of producing cost-effective, sustainable and 100-per-cent-made-in-America copper."

Initial mineralized material sorting results:

• Sample: A half-ton sample consisting of two-inch to six-inch pieces of PQ drill core from the Martin formation was collected as part of Gunnison's recently completed metallurgical drilling program. The Martin formation is the highest-acid-consuming rock type in the deposit and makes up approximately 44 per cent of the resource base. The sample comprises approximately 54 per cent mineralized material and approximately 46 per cent internal waste, consistent with the overall Martin formation.
• Waste reduction: Over 90 per cent of the internal acid-consuming waste was successfully removed from the mineralized material using optical mineral sorting equipment at a commercial scale.
• Acid consumption reduction: Due to the removal of the high-acid-consuming waste, the sorted material is expected to require up to four times lower acid consumption.
• Copper recovery: Less than 1 per cent of total copper was lost to waste, ensuring strong copper recovery and protecting revenue.
• Testing location: Initial sorting tests were conducted at Steinert's facilities in Kentucky in August, 2025.

Should further test work remain consistent with the initial testing results, it suggests approximately 40 per cent of the mined Martin formation can be removed as internal waste by optical mineral sorting prior to processing on the leach pad. This would result in a near doubling of the process head grade and significantly reduced process operating costs.

Next steps:

• Optimization testing on different size fractions of the Martin formation:
  • Mineral sorting samples will be crushed at Base Metallurgical Labs in Tucson.
  • Crushed materials will then be returned to Steinert for further mineral sorting tests to determine further liberation and sizing characteristics.
• Following the mineralization being separated from internal waste, column leach testing will be conducted on sorted products.
• Some samples may be sent to Germany for testing using Steinert's advanced M sorters.
• Incorporation of results into an updated PEA (preliminary economic assessment) is expected in the first quarter of 2026.

About mineralized material sorting

Copper oxide exists on visually distinct blue-green and red-brown zones that are ideally suited to optical mineralized material sorting. Preliminary testing was 100 per cent successful and data suggest sorting of this material has the potential to greatly reduce acid consumption and volume of material leached by removing 40 to 50 per cent of the process stream as unmineralized, higher-acid-consuming waste. This would result in significant savings on operating costs.

About Gunnison Copper Corp.

Gunnison Copper is a multiasset pure play copper developer and producer that controls the Cochise mining district, containing 12 known deposits within an eight-kilometre economic radius, in the Southern Arizona copper belt.

Its flagship asset, the Gunnison copper project, has a measured and indicated mineral resource containing over 831.6 million tons with a total copper grade of 0.31 per cent (measured mineral resource of 191.3 million tons at 0.37 per cent and indicated mineral resource of 640.2 million tons at 0.29 per cent) and a preliminary economic assessment yielding robust economics, including a net present value (discounted at 8 per cent) of $1.3-billion, an internal rate of return of 20.9 per cent and a payback period of 4.1 years. It is being developed as a conventional operation with open-pit mining, heap leach and an SX/EW (solvent extraction/electrowinning) refinery to produce finished copper cathode on-site with direct rail link.

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. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.In addition, Gunnison's Johnson Camp asset, which is now in production, is fully financed by Nuton LLC, a Rio Tinto venture, with a production capacity of up to 25 million pounds of finished copper cathode annually. Other significant deposits controlled by Gunnison in the district, with potential to be economic satellite feeder deposits for Gunnison project infrastructure, include Strong and Harris, South Star, and eight other deposits.

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 Nov. 1, 2024, and available on SEDAR+.

Dr. Roland Goodgame, senior vice-president, business development, of the company, is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Dr. Goodgame has reviewed and is responsible for the technical information contained in this news release.

Dr. Goodgame has verified the data disclosed in this news release, including the assay and test data underlying the information or opinions contained in this news release. Dr. Goodgame verified the data disclosed in this news release by reviewing imported and sorted assay data, checking the performance of blank samples and certified reference materials, and reviewing grade calculation formulas. Dr. Goodgame detected no significant quality assurance/quality control issues during review of the data and is not aware of any sampling, recovery or other factors that could materially affect the accuracy or reliability of the data referred to in this news release.

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