US Copper Corp. announced results from the 15-hole shallow drill program last fall on its Moonlight deposit at the Moonlight-Superior Copper Project in North-East California. Highlights: Mineralized drill hole intercepts were submitted for sequential copper assays, and acid soluble copper was identified in 14 of 15 holes, including one intercept of 205 feet of 0.644% recoverable copper; Results confirmed a small oxide cap covers the large Moonlight sulfide deposit.

This cap had been considered waste rock by previous operators; Soluble copper averaged 91% of total copper; and Acid soluble copper greater than 0.2% occurs over an area of 2,000 ft by 1500 ft to an average depth of greater than 150 ft. These results are now being reviewed by an independent engineering firm to determine: Parameters for further metallurgical testing; A new resource calculation for the oxide mineralization at Moonlight; and The economic viability of an oxide mining operation combining both the Engels and Moonlight oxide caps. Background: The Moonlight deposit is primarily a copper sulfide deposit hosted in the Lights Creek stock of Quartz Monzonite (QM) which had intruded Triassic - Jurassic metavolcanics.

The resource consists of an earlier stage of mineralization with disseminated sulfide minerals in the QM and a later stage structurally controlled mineralization of tourmaline vein and breccia structures of multiple orientations that house sulfides. A small oxide cap, dominantly malachite with some chalcocite and native copper, covers the surface of the deposit. In the 1970s Placer-Amex had estimated a resource for the oxide cap at 12.2 million tons at 0.54% copper.

This estimate is historical in nature though and cannot be relied on. With the recent drilling at Moonlight, a new resource estimate will now be calculated for the oxide cap to update the current moonlight resource. The Moonlight sulfide deposit hosts a current National Instrument 43-101 indicated resource of approximately 252 million tons (154 million tonnes) averaging 0.25% copper and 0.07 oz/silver per ton, and an inferred resource of 109 million tons (62 million tonnes) averaging 0.24% copper and 0.08 oz/silver per ton, both above a USD 6.25 net smelter return cut-off.

Contained indicated resources are 1.272 billion pounds of copper and 18 million ounces of silver, and inferred resources of 534 million pounds of copper and 9 million ounces of silver. The Moonlight sulfide deposit remains open to the south and at depth. This resource estimate is contained in the NI 43- 101 Technical Report and Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Moonlight Deposit, Plumas County, California, by Tetra Tech, dated April 12, 2018, available on US Copper's website and on SEDAR.

US Copper had this PEA prepared on its Moonlight deposit in 2018 and it demonstrated positive economics at USD 3.15 per pound copper. It was also determined that providing higher grade ore from its Superior and/or Engels deposits into the Moonlight mine plan would substantially enhance the Project's economics by potentially increasing cash flows in the initial years of production. The recently completed drill program at Superior in 2021and at Engels and Moonlight in 2023 were designed to better define any higher grade ore at these deposits for potential starter pits for the Moonlight plant.

Ultimately, the updated Engels and Superior resources will be incorporated into a revised Moonlight PEA.