Commodity
Copper
Location
Arizona, USA
Operator
Royalty Details
Altius owns an underlying 1.625% gross sales royalty covering the Gunnison Copper Project. The royalty does not apply to the Johnson Camp.
Asset Highlights
First cathode production at the Gunnison Copper Project commenced in December, 2020, when copper was being extracted via in-situ recovery. In mid 2021, the operator disclosed a significant reduction in expected throughput, due to the presence of carbon dioxide that reduced flow rates. This problem persisted throughout 2021 and 2022, with potential remedies failing to solve the problem. In 2024, Gunnison Copper announced a change to the proposed extraction method, including the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) in November 2024 which presented a conventional open pit and heap leach operation. This change requires separate permitting, which if successful, would be followed by financing and a potential construction decision.
See full PEA Technical Report here.
Overview
The Gunnison copper mine is located 105 km southeast of Tucson within the Arizona copper belt. The Gunnison Project hosts the Gunnison deposit and contains copper oxide and sulfide mineralization in potentially economic concentrations.The company completed a PEA in Q4 2024, outlining an open pit heap leach and SX/EW operation extending over 18 years and producing LME Grade A copper cathodes directly onsite.
The 1% of the Gunnison project royalty was originally acquired by Callinan Royalties Corp. in 2013 as part of a royalty and equity financing of the Company and was later increased to 1.625% by Altius with the exercise of the Calinan Royalties Corp. agreement to acquire an additional 0.625% royalty for CAD$5 million.
