Arizona Sonoran (TSX: ASCU) has significantly increased the measured and indicated resource tonnage for its Cactus copper project in Arizona by over 25% following a seven-month drilling campaign. The total measured and indicated resources now stand at 632.6 million tonnes, containing 0.58% copper, equating to 7.3 billion pounds of copper. This marks a 26% increase from the previous estimate, primarily due to infill drilling at the Parks/Salyer area, confirmed by Arizona Sonoran on Wednesday. Inferred resources have also risen by 60%, reaching 474 million tonnes at 0.41% copper, amounting to 3.8 billion pounds of copper.

The project successfully upgraded 1.2 billion pounds of copper to the measured category and consolidated the Parks/Salyer resource area with the new MainSpring property into a single deposit. This combined area now represents about two-thirds of the total mineral resource at Cactus, with 4.8 billion pounds in measured and indicated resources, and 2.6 billion pounds in inferred resources.

Arizona Sonoran’s CEO, George Ogilvie, emphasized the potential transformational impact of the new Parks/Salyer deposit, including MainSpring, suggesting the possibility of optimizing operations and reshaping Parks/Salyer into an open pit mine. The company aims to incorporate these findings into a new preliminary economic assessment (PEA), expected to be completed this summer. A positive PEA, along with a new prefeasibility study, could pave the way for a definitive feasibility study by the end of next year.

The Cactus project also includes Cactus West, Cactus East, and the Stockpile areas along a 5.5-kilometer trend, where no significant changes in resource estimates have been reported. Doug Bowden, Arizona Sonoran’s vice-president of exploration, highlighted the favorable outcomes of infill drilling across these areas, consistently increasing their resource classification.

Earlier this year, the company completed a prefeasibility study for the Cactus project, outlining a 21-year copper operation with an annual production of 110 million pounds of payable metal. The study indicated an after-tax net present value of $515 million at an 8% discount rate, with an internal rate of return of 15.3%.

ASCU aims to establish itself as a mid-tier copper producer with efficient operations, focusing on developing the Cactus Project to deliver strong returns for investors while ensuring long-term sustainability and responsibility towards the community and stakeholders. The company's primary asset is its full ownership of the brownfield Cactus Project (formerly ASARCO, Sacaton mine), located on private land in an area of Arizona well-served by infrastructure. ASCU is guided by an executive management team and Board with extensive experience in successful project execution across North America, supported by expertise in global capital markets.