Exploration – Overview

Like Cactus, the Parks/Salyer Project and Cactus Northeast Extension both extend over a portion of the large porphyry copper system that has been dismembered and displaced by tertiary extensional faulting. Major host rocks at Cactus are precambrian oracle granite and laramide monzonite porphyry and quartz monzonite porphyry. The porphyries intruded the older rocks to form mixed breccias; monolithic breccias and occur as large masses, poorly defined dike-like masses; and thin well-defined but discontinuous dikes. The mineralization is structurally complex with intense fracturing, faulting, and both pre-mineral and post-mineral brecciation. 

The long section below displays the horst and graben fault block geometries and mineralization interpretations from the Parks/Salyer deposit to the NE Extension. NE movement along the basement fault was accommodated by block rotation and the formation of NW trending normal faults resulting in the formation of horst and graben blocks. The copper box indicates Arizona Sonoran controlled property boundaries. The existing Cactus West pit is displayed on the long section below.

Recent ASCU exploration programs centered on definition and infill core drilling around the Parks/Salyer Project, which led to a maiden mineral resource of 2.9 billion pounds of copper at 1.015% Total Copper, issued on September 28, 2022. In 2019, two vertical PQ core holes were drilled into the East mineralized zone for verification of grade and for metallurgical testing as part of the evaluation program prior to purchase. One additional vertical PQ core hole was drilled into Cactus East in 2020 for further metallurgical testing, for a total of 5,768 ft (1,758 m). Five angled HQ core holes totaling 9,252 ft (2,820 m) were drilled in late 2019 and 2020 around the northern and western edges of Cactus East to define and expand mineralization. Also in 2020, 11 angled HQ core holes totaling 15,377 ft (4,687 m) were drilled around the perimeter of the West Pit to further define and expand Cactus West mineralization beyond the pit limits. Infill drilling continues on the Cactus East and West deposits to convert inferred resources defined in the PEA to indicated. In 2019, 55 surface sonic drill holes totaling 5,120 ft of 6-inch diameter holes were drilled across the Cactus Stockpile Project to support an initial resource based on approximately 750 ft (229 m) spaced drilling. Through late 2020 and 2021, an infill surface sonic drill program was undertaken to reduce the spacing to 400 ft (122 m). The resource database for the Stockpile Project resource contains 210 holes. Drilling of an additional 332 holes on the Project in 2021 further reduced the drill spacing to 200 ft (61 m), which will be incorporated into the resource database.