Nuton option in the Cactus Mine Project

On December 14, 2023, Arizona Sonoran Copper Company Inc. (“ASCU”) announced that it entered into an option to joint venture agreement with Nuton LLC (“Nuton”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto, to establish a strategic alliance for deployment of the Nuton technologies at its Cactus Mine Project and the Parks/Salyer Project, in Arizona.

Under the terms and conditions of the option agreement, entered into with two of ASCU’s wholly-owned subsidiaries, Arizona Sonoran Copper Company (USA) Inc. (“ASUSA”) and Cactus 110 LLC (“Cactus”), Nuton was granted the exclusive right and option to acquire between a 35.0% to 40.0% interest in the Cactus Mine Project.

The Cactus Mine Project is a 100%-owned brownfield porphyry copper project located on private land in the Arizona Copper Belt approximately 6 mi (10 km) northwest of the city of Casa Grande and 40 road miles south-southwest of the Greater Phoenix metropolitan area in Arizona. The project is comprised of three deposits and one waste dump within a 4 km mine trend, including the past producing Sacaton Mine, the deposits now known as Cactus East and Cactus West.

The option agreement provides for total funding of up to US$33 million in cash to ASUSA, comprised of the following:

• US$10 million payable by Nuton to ASUSA at signing of the agreement;
• up to US$11 million available to be drawn by ASUSA in the form of a pre-payment towards the option exercise price to be used for certain land payments; and
• up to US$12 million payable to ASCU for funding costs associated with continued Nuton test work required to produce the Integrated Nuton Case PFS.

Further information can be found on Business Wire’s website.

Arizona Sonoran Copper Company is an emerging US-based copper developer and near-term producer. Its objective is to become a mid-tier copper producer with low operating costs and to develop the Cactus and Parks/Salyer Projects.

Nuton offers a portfolio of proprietary copper leach related technologies and capability developed by Rio Tinto to deliver increased copper recovery from primary sulphide material and leading environmental performance.