Gunnison Copper Submits MLRP Amendment for Gunnison Project
News related to:Gunnison Copper Corp · 2 min read
Gunnison Copper Corp. has submitted an application to amend the Mined Land Reclamation Plan (MLRP) for its flagship Gunnison Project in Cochise County, Arizona. The company expects the amendment to be approved by the end of 2026, following the applicable review process. This submission is part of a broader effort to secure all necessary permits for the project, which is expected to be fully permitted by mid-2028.
The MLRP amendment is one of three principal state permit amendments required to advance the Gunnison Project under its planned open-pit development configuration. The other two are amendments to the company's existing Aquifer Protection Permit (APP) and Air Quality Permit (AQP).
The company is also advancing the engineering and technical work required to support an amendment to its existing APP. Gunnison is targeting submission of the APP amendment in the first quarter of 2027, with opportunities being evaluated to accelerate that timeline. Following submission, the company currently anticipates an approximately 12-month review and approval process by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ), with the final permit approval expected by Q1 2028.
For the Air Quality Permit, the company currently expects to submit its AQP amendment in mid-2027 and is targeting receipt of the amended permit in mid-2028.
In parallel with the state permitting process, Gunnison continues to advance planning related to the proposed relocation of a portion of Interstate 10 (I-10) that crosses the Gunnison Project area. The company currently plans to submit a Letter of Intent to the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) in the current quarter to formally commence the relocation process. Gunnison is targeting approval of the associated Design Concept Report (DCR) by the end of 2027.
The Gunnison Project is subject to a state-led permitting process. The MLRP is administered by the Arizona State Mine Inspector, while the APP and AQP are administered by the ADEQ. The project is located in the Southern Arizona Copper Belt and contains 12 known deposits within an 8 km economic radius. The flagship asset, the Gunnison Copper Project, has a main pit Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource containing over 846 million tons with a total copper grade of 0.33%, containing 5.19 billion pounds of copper.
The company's preliminary economic assessment (PEA) completed in March 2026 yielded robust economics, including an NPV8% of $2 billion, an IRR of 23%, and a payback period of 3.9 years. 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.
Gunnison Copper Corp. is a multi-asset pure-play copper developer and producer, controlling the Cochise Mining District, which contains 12 known deposits within an 8 km economic radius. The company's flagship asset, the Gunnison Copper Project, is being developed as a conventional operation with open pit mining, heap leach, and SX/EW refinery to produce finished copper cathode on-site with direct rail link.