Overview
In April 2026 the Company entered into a Join Venture with Nittetsu Mining, Co. of Japan. Nittetsu acquired an 80% interest in Oracle Ridge with Eagle Mountain retaining 20%. Nittetsu will operate the Project going forward and has committed to spending US$ 20 million to retain its 80% interest. Eagle Mountain is free-carried until this expenditure milestone is met.
Oracle Ridge has a mineral resource of 28 Mt @ 1.35% copper, 11.06 g/t silver and 0.16 g/t gold for 380,000t of copper, 10 Moz of silver and 142koz of gold. The Oracle Ridge mine was operational in the 1990s and produced a clean, high-grade copper-silver-gold concentrate. Significant infrastructure remain on site including 18km of underground developments and mine buildings while the historical processing plant has since been removed.
Nittetsu Mining, Co.
Nittetsu is a Japanese company established in 1939 with interests in mineral resources, machinery, environmental engineering, real estate and renewable energy. Nittetsu is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of approximately JPY150 billion (~A$1.4 billion) and has approximately 2,200 employees.
The Mineral Resources segment includes two divisions: Nonmetallic Minerals and Metallic Minerals. The Nonmetallic Minerals is one of the largest producers of limestone in Japan, producing approximately 23 Mt per annum. Limestone is used as raw feed in industries such as steel and cement. The expanding Metallic Minerals operates a copper mine and advanced projects in Chile and is a JV partner in Hibi Kyodo Smelting Co., Ltd, refining approximately 50,000 tonnes of copper per annum.
Project Location
The Oracle Ridge Project is located less than a two-hour drive from Tucson, Arizona and only 50 minutes from the mining town of San Manuel. The San Manuel copper mine was the world’s largest underground copper mine by the 1980s and produced over 700 million tons of ore from underground alone.
Geology
Oracle Ridge is a classified as a skarn deposit with copper mineralisation hosted in altered limestones and marbles at or near the contact with the Laramide-aged Leatherwood intrusive. The main copper minerals at Oracle Ridge are bornite, chalcocite, and chalcopyrite, with very little copper occurring in oxide or silicate form. The deposit also contains elevated concentrations of silver and gold, which generally show close associations with copper and, in past operations, have reported to the concentrate. The mineralisation occurs in multiple forms, including fine disseminations, fracture and vein fill, and coarse blebs. The main gangue minerals are magnetite, pyroxene, serpentine, grossularite, dolomite, calcite, and quartz.
