Coppernico Metals Inc. announced that it has acquired an option on mineral concessions aggregating 600 hectares adjacent to its Tipicancha target at its Sombrero Project in Peru. The optioned concessions are located in an area where the Company?s expanding Tipicancha epithermal-porphyry system is believed to continue beyond the boundaries of the current Sombrero Project. In 2025, while in discussions regarding the Horizonte Concessions, Coppernico staked an additional 1,400 hectares of surrounding mineral concessions.
Together, these concessions substantially enhance the land position at Tipicancha, which is a priority target given its strong indicators of potential porphyry source at depth. The option agreement is between the arms-length owner of the concessions covering the 600 hectares, Exploraciones Horizonte Gold S.A.C. and the Company?s wholly-owned subsidiary, Sombrero Minerales S.A.C. The subsidiary has been granted immediate rights to conduct exploration activities on the Horizonte Concessions and may purchase them by completing USD 3.0 million in staged work expenditures over a five-year period and making total payments of USD 2.0 million. The agreement provides Coppernico with full operational control of the concessions during the option period, allowing the Company to advance exploration programs, including geophysical surveys and drilling.
If the option is exercised, the Optionor will retain a 1% net smelter return royalty on future production. Coppernico retains the right to reduce the NSR to 0.5% at any time within 10 years of the NSR being established, through a one-time payment of USD 1.0 million. The Horizonte Concessions are currently in good standing, with no known encumbrances or environmental liabilities, and all required payments have been maintained.
Coppernico intends to commence initial exploration activities in the near term. The newly added concessions are strategically positioned immediately to the south of the Tipicancha target, expanding Coppernico's ground coverage over a zone of altered volcanic rocks consistent with higher levels and/or lower temperature expressions of lithocap alteration. Within the Horizonte Concessions, located approximately 2.5 km south of Tipicancha, is an area that was subject to a condensed historical exploration program by Minera del Suroeste S.A.C. between 2006 and 2007 as part of a joint venture with Newmont.
This historical work included approximately 1:10,000-scale geological mapping, surface rock sampling, and the completion of three short reverse-circulation drill holes. Mapping documented advanced argillic alteration assemblages including silica-alunite alteration, vuggy silica, silica breccias and structurally controlled silicified zones, as well as steeply dipping to near-vertical gold-bearing structures identified at surface, consistent with the upper levels of a high-sulfidation epithermal system. Surface sampling defined a coherent geochemical footprint over an approximately 800 m by 500 m sample area, characterized by anomalous to locally high gold and silver values with strong associated arsenic, antimony and mercury anomalies.
The historical drill program comprised three near-vertical RC drill holes spaced approximately 260 m to 300 m apart, with total depths ranging from 89 m to 172 m. The drill holes intersected extensive hydrothermal alteration and locally anomalous gold values; however, mineralized intervals were short and the program did not effectively test the system at depth or along interpreted structural trends. Coppernico currently interprets these historical results to represent the upper, typically weakly mineralized portion of a vertically extensive hydrothermal system. Recent geological mapping completed by Coppernico immediately to the north, at the broader Tipicancha target, provides an expanded and deeper erosional view into the system and demonstrates vertical and lateral alteration zonation consistent with a transition from high-sulfidation epithermal conditions toward the base of a lithocap, with potential for porphyry-related mineralization at depth.
The Company considers these concessions to be at an early stage of exploration and strategically important for advancing a district-scale geological model and vectoring toward higher-potential mineralized zones within the Tipicancha system.
