Updated:
Gunnison Copper Corp.
Gunnison Copper Corp. controls a permitted in-situ copper recovery project in Arizona, run by Chairman Stephen Lang.
Gunnison Copper Corp.
Gunnison Copper Corp. emerged from a restructuring of Excelsior Mining's asset portfolio following a prolonged development cycle at the Gunnison copper project in Cochise County, Arizona. Stephen Lang, who chairs the entity, consolidated the project-level assets into a standalone corporate vehicle. The firm's principal asset — the Gunnison in-situ copper recovery operation — sits on private land southeast of Tucson, where it has secured key Class III Underground Injection Control area permits from the EPA for its wellfield. The company deploys in-situ recovery (ISR) mining, a chemical extraction technique typically associated with uranium production in the United States, rather than mechanized open-pit operations. The Gunnison asset targets copper oxide mineralization within the Johnson Camp mine complex. The project is designed in phases, beginning with a 25 million-pound-per-annum starter wellfield at the North Star deposit, per the company's technical reports. Groundwater from the wellfield is pumped to a solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) plant capable of producing London Metal Exchange Grade A cathode copper. Known counterparties and offtakers in prior phases have included Trafigura, which provided an $85 million prepayment facility to fund phase one construction (per the firm, 2019). The operation's footprint spans private, patented claims within Arizona's historic copper belt. Gunnison Copper operates with a lean corporate structure, run from a Vancouver headquarters and an operational base in Phoenix, Arizona. The firm listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under ticker GCU following the corporate reorganization that carved it out of Excelsior. In September 2023, the company announced the start of commercial copper recovery at the North Star deposit after completing wellfield commissioning (per the firm, September 2023). Adjacent to its ISR operations, the company holds the historic Johnson Camp open-pit mine and associated SX-EW infrastructure, which it has periodically operated to process mineralized material. Structurally, Gunnison Copper represents a rarity in North American metal extraction: a near-pure-play in-situ copper recovery company with no underground or open-pit operating mine. While Freeport-McMoRan and BHP operate massive conventional assets in the same Arizona copper district, Gunnison's chemical-extraction model positions it for a far smaller surface disturbance and a distinct permitting pathway — the same ISR regulatory framework used by uranium producers like Cameco and enCore Energy in the Powder River Basin and South Texas.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
Canada
City
Vancouver
Corporate office
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Additional offices
Phoenix, AZ, United States
Principals
Stephen R. Lang
Chairman
Michael J. McClelland
Chief Financial Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
What is in-situ copper recovery and how does Gunnison apply it?
In-situ recovery (ISR) dissolves copper from underground oxide deposits by injecting a dilute acidic solution into the orebody and pumping the pregnant solution to the surface for processing. At the Gunnison project in Arizona, groundwater circulates through the wellfield and a solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) plant recovers cathode copper (per the firm's technical reports). The method avoids open-pit mining, generates no tailings, and operates under EPA Class III Underground Injection Control permits.
Who runs investment and operational decisions at Gunnison Copper?
Stephen Lang serves as Chairman and leads strategic direction. Michael McClelland acts as CFO, managing financial reporting and capital markets activity. The board and management team draw from the predecessor entity Excelsior Mining's leadership. Day-to-day wellfield and plant operations are run from the project site in Cochise County, Arizona.
How is Gunnison Copper Corp. related to Excelsior Mining?
Gunnison Copper Corp. was created through a corporate reorganization that separated the Gunnison copper project assets from Excelsior Mining into a standalone TSX Venture Exchange-listed entity. The restructuring gave Excelsior shareholders a direct interest in the ISR copper asset and allowed Gunnison to pursue independent financing. Stephen Lang chairs both companies.
Does Gunnison Copper participate in fund commitments or only operate project-level assets?
Gunnison Copper is not a fund. It is a project-level operating company that owns and develops the Gunnison copper ISR project and the adjacent Johnson Camp mine infrastructure in Arizona. Its capital comes from equity markets, metal streaming agreements, and prepayment offtake arrangements. It does not allocate capital to third-party funds.
Which commodities and sectors does Gunnison explicitly target?
The firm is solely focused on copper production through in-situ recovery in Arizona. It does not explore for or produce gold, silver, lithium, uranium, or any other metal. The entire asset base is concentrated in the Johnson Camp mining district, making it a single-asset, single-method, single-jurisdiction copper vehicle.
What is Gunnison's known posture on co-investments or joint ventures alongside external operators?
The company wholly owns its Arizona assets and has historically structured offtake and prepayment facilities (such as the Trafigura facility) rather than mine-level joint ventures. It has not brought in a co-operator for the ISR wellfield or the SX-EW plant. Any future expansion of the wellfield could involve additional streaming or royalty finance, per the firm's public disclosures.
What permitting and regulatory status does the Gunnison project hold?
The Gunnison ISR project operates under an EPA-authorized Class III Underground Injection Control area permit issued by the state of Arizona. The wellfield sits on private and patented mining claims, not federal land, which simplifies surface rights. The company also holds an Aquifer Protection Permit from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality for the SX-EW processing plant.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
Need institutional-grade insight on family offices?
Altss delivers:
Prefer a guided tour?
We’ll walk you through: