Lion Copper Corp. has filed an updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate for its Bear Project in Lyon County, Nevada, with metallurgical testing still outstanding but recovery assumptions drawn from nearby deposits.
The Bear Project sits approximately 70 miles by road from Reno, Nevada, slightly north of Yerington and about 8 miles from the nearest cross-country rail line at Wabuska. Lion Copper Corp. (Lion) and its wholly owned United States subsidiary, Singatse Peak Services, LLC (SPS), are advancing exploration of the copper deposit in Lyon County, Nevada. The project underlies public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management, parcels owned by SPS, and optioned land parcels. The Bear Deposit forms part of the Mining Assets subject to an Option to Earn-in Agreement between the Company, SPS, and Rio Tinto America Inc. from March 2022; Rio Tinto America Inc. assigned its rights and obligations to its indirect wholly owned subsidiary, Nuton LLC, in November 2025. The deposit was discovered in the early 1960s during sterilization drilling for locating a sulfide tailings facility, and ownership was not consolidated until 2014 when SPS optioned additional real estate covering most of the known location. The Bear Project represents one of four known porphyry copper deposits in the Yerington District, with the Yerington Mine, the MacArthur deposit, and the Mason Project as the others. SPS does not presently own or control all surface and other property interests that may ultimately be required for future development of the Bear Deposit. The Mineral Resource for the Bear Project, effective July 21, 2026, reports Indicated Resources of 1,064 Mt at 0.29 Cu% and Inferred Resources of 1,770 Mt at 0.22 Cu% using a cut-off grade of 0.10% Cu.
Critical Data
| Parameter | Value | Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indicated Mineral Resource | 1,064 | Mt | At 0.29 Cu%, 0.10% Cu cut-off grade |
| Inferred Mineral Resource | 1,770 | Mt | At 0.22 Cu%, 0.10% Cu cut-off grade |
| Contained copper, Indicated | 6,710,000 | 000 Cu lbs | Reported in source Table 1-1 |
| Contained copper, Inferred | 8,770,000 | 000 Cu lbs | Reported in source Table 1-1 |
| Cut-off grade | 0.10 | % Cu | Break-even economic cut-off for sulfide material |
| Assumed recovery | 75 | % | Based on adjacent deposits and industry benchmarks |
| Assumed net copper price | 4.22 | US$/lb | After smelting, refining, transportation, royalty charges |
| Effective date of Mineral Resource | July 21, 2026 | Not applicable | |
| Location | Lyon County, Nevada, US | Not applicable | Approximately 70 miles by road from Reno |
| Ownership | Lion Copper Corp. via SPS | Not applicable | Nuton LLC holds option rights |
| Development status | Exploration | Not applicable | No metallurgical testwork performed to date |
| Construction timing | Not stated | Not applicable |
Overview
The Bear Project Mineral Resource estimate consists of pit constrained Indicated and Inferred Resources. The estimate used validated historic drill hole data generated by Anaconda and Phelps Dodge, along with drilling results by SPS and Lion in 2015, 2016, 2023, and 2024. Historic and current drilling indicate that limits to the mineralization have not yet been found, both horizontally and vertically, and additional exploration and infill drilling are warranted and expected to both expand and upgrade the NI 43-101 compliant mineral resources.
No metallurgical testwork has yet been conducted for the Bear Project. The Qualified Persons recommend that Lion advance the Bear Project as a component of the Yerington Copper Project's development strategy. The recommended budget for ongoing work totals $19,351,000, with geology at $15,101,000, metallurgy and mineral processing at $1,500,000, environmental work at $250,000, and a PEA study at $2,500,000. The QPs anticipate that testwork will evaluate flotation and primary copper heap leaching technologies to determine copper recovery variability, select the optimal processing method, and build a recovery model for the deposit.
A portion of the Bear deposit sits beneath an area under active NDEP-supervised remediation with third-party liability. Environmental baseline studies and permitting requirements will be necessary as the Project advances. The report identifies risks and opportunities including potential changes to mineral resource tonnage from further drilling, metallurgical testing demonstrating different recoveries than predicted, changes in future mining costs and copper prices, changes to permitting requirements, and potential increases in material that could be mined and processed if agreements can be reached to purchase or option uncontrolled parcels.
Key Process Stages
No mineral processing or recovery methods have been established for the Bear Project because metallurgical testwork has not been performed. The recovery methods under consideration are flotation and primary copper heap leaching. A recovery of 75% can be anticipated based upon test work from adjacent deposits and industry benchmarks outlined in Section 13 of the technical report. The rocks and mineralization from the Bear deposit are contained within the same intrusive batholith as the Yerington and MacArthur deposits, which provides the basis for the anticipated recovery assumption. A white paper presented at the World Mining Congress in 2023 discussed copper hydrometallurgy and chalcopyrite leaching, presenting an 85% copper recovery for a mill, flotation, and smelter process and 64% recovery for commercially proven chalcopyrite heap leaching technologies. The 75% recovery assumption used for the Mineral Resource estimate falls between these figures, and the break-even cut-off grade calculation used this 75% recovery rate for sulfide material.
Recent metallurgical results from the nearby Yerington deposit indicate that 75% recovery is a reasonable assumption for the Mineral Resource estimate. The proposed metallurgy and mineral processing budget of $1,500,000 is designated for scoping metallurgical testwork to assess ore characteristics and optimal processing methods across all identified geological domains. The key process stages for the Bear Project will depend on the outcomes of this scoping testwork, which has not yet been commissioned.
Additional Interesting Data and Summary
The Bear Project has a long history of exploration dating back to the early 1960s, with drilling by Anaconda, Phelps Dodge, and Newmont preceding Lion's programs. Anaconda completed 35 holes totaling 94,835.4 feet in the 1960s, while Phelps Dodge completed 12 drill holes for 34,007.5 feet in the 1960s and 1970s focused east of Highway 95A. Lion conducted drilling programs in 2015 through 2016 for a total of 20,274.5 feet focusing on high-grade mineralization potentially located at the northeast part of the deposit, with additional programs in 2023 and 2024 totaling 14,009 feet extending the deposit to the northwest.
The deposit was discovered during sterilization drilling for locating a sulfide tailings facility, and copper mineralization occurs in the Middle Jurassic intrusive rocks of the Yerington Batholith. Chalcopyrite and lesser bornite are the dominant sulfide minerals, frequently occurring with Early Dark Micaceous veinlets, in distinct sulfide veinlets, quartz-sulfide veinlets, or as massive knots and gobs. The deposit is concealed under alluvial and volcanic cover, with the entire rock package extended along northerly-striking, down-to-the-east normal listric faults creating an estimated 2.5 miles of west-to-east dilation-displacement. The extension rotated the section such that near-vertically emplaced batholiths and copper deposits were tilted 60 to 90 degrees westerly.
Multiple geophysical surveys have been undertaken over the years, including two IP surveys, a magnetotelluric survey, modelling of gravity magnetic data, and open-hole downhole geophysical surveys. The Mineral Resource estimate used a break-even economic cut-off grade of 0.10% Cu based on assumptions of a net copper price of US$4.22/lb and 75% recovery in sulfide material. Mineral resources are presented as undiluted and in situ for an open-pit scenario, with the constraining pit shell developed using overall pit slopes of 40 degrees in overburden and 45 degrees in bedrock. The pit optimization was performed using HxGN MinePlan software. The independent qualified person for the Mineral Resource is Tim Maunula, P.Geo. of T. Maunula & Associates Consulting Inc.
The summary of the Bear Project is that it remains at exploration stage with a substantial Mineral Resource but no metallurgical testwork completed. The proposed path forward includes scoping metallurgical testwork, environmental baseline studies, and a PEA study. The project is considered by the QPs to have reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction, with no known environmental, permitting, legal, taxation, socio-political, financial, or other relevant issues that could materially affect the MRE. The Company controls most of the property required for future development and remains engaged in ongoing property acquisitions.
Key Processes
- Metallurgical testwork has not yet been conducted for the Bear Project
- Testwork will evaluate flotation and primary copper heap leaching technologies
- A recovery of 75% can be anticipated based on test work from adjacent deposits and industry benchmarks
- The 75% recovery assumption was used for the break-even cut-off grade calculation
- Recommended budget for metallurgy and mineral processing is $1,500,000 for scoping testwork
- The scoping testwork will assess ore characteristics and optimal processing methods across all identified geological domains
- No recovery model has been built yet for the deposit
Source: Bear Project Mineral Resource Estimate NI 43-101 Technical Report, September 14, 2026. Project website: Bear Project
