US Copper Corp. announced that it has signed a contract for a drill program at the Engels deposit, part of the Company's wholly-owned Moonlight-Superior Copper Project, located in Plumas County, California. The drill program will include 15 reverse circulation drill holes into the oxide cap that sits on top of the Engels' sulfide deposit.

The drill program is scheduled to commence in the second quarter 2023, when access permits. Objectives of the drill program include: Upgrading and potentially expanding the current oxide resource estimate; Providing samples for preliminary metallurgical evaluation; and Providing initial data for inclusion in a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on the Engels oxide deposit. The oxide cap at Engels is developed to depths greater than 230 feet (ft) over an area of at least 1,000 ft by 500 ft.

Sample intercepts from prior drill programs reveal a high-grade copper oxide cap. These results were included in the 2013 resource estimate of 2.5 million tons (MT) at 1.05% as contained in the Company's NI 43-101Technical Report and Resource Estimate for the Superior Project, Plumas County, California, with a refiled date of November 7, 2014. Background: The Engels deposit is one of 3 significant copper deposits on US Copper's Moonlight-Superior property.

It is located 6,000 ft east of the company's 300 MT 0.30% copper Moonlight deposit and 11,000 ft north of the 60 MT 0.43% copper Superior deposit. Initial efforts to mine-process the oxide (carbonate) ore in the early 1900's failed due to technological shortcomings. In 1914-15 sulfide ore was discovered at Engels during development of the 5th level, and shortly thereafter Engels and the nearby Superior properties were consolidated under the Engels Mining Company and production and processing of the sulfide ore began.

Consolidated production from Engels-Superior in the 1915-1930 period yielded approximately 4.2 MT of ore at a grade of 2.2% copper. The majority of the production came from Engels. Mine workings at Engels are extensive and include many tens of thousands of feet of drifts, crosscuts, and stopes on ten levels accessed by adits and six levels accessed from a winze sunk from the No.

10 level. In the 1960s-70s Placer AMEX did extensive work in the district which resulted in the discovery of the Moonlight deposit, partial delineation of the Superior deposit and an evaluation of the Engels deposit that included an internal company open pit estimate of 19 million tons of sulfide material with a grade of 0.63% Copper. US Copper had a PEA prepared on its Moonlight deposit in 2018 that showed positive economics at $3.15 per pound copper.

It was determined that providing higher grade ore from the company's 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 was designed specifically for that purpose, and this Engels Phase I Program will outline the potential for a second starter pit for the Moonlight plant. Ultimately, the updated Engels and Superior resources will be incorporated into a revised Moonlight PEA.