Gunnison Copper Appoints U.S. Defense Sector Executive as Chief Financial Officer

Jennifer Hays brings decades of finance leadership, including Intel Corporation and most recently served as CFO of a U.S. defense company

Phoenix, Arizona--(Newsfile Corp. - September 28, 2026) - Gunnison Copper Corp. (TSX: GCU) (OTCQB: GCUMF) (FSE: 3XS0) ("Gunnison" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Jennifer Hays as Chief Financial Officer ("CFO"), effective October 12, 2026.

Mr. Fabio Rocha, who has served as the Company's Interim Chief Financial Officer, will be promoted to Senior Director, Accounting and Reporting, from his previous role as Director, Accounting and Reporting. The Company thanks Mr. Rocha for his leadership and contributions during his tenure as Interim CFO and looks forward to his continued contributions as a key member of Gunnison's finance team.

Ms. Hays is an accomplished American finance executive with approximately 20 years of experience spanning the U.S. defense industrial base, government contracting, public companies, manufacturing, strategic investment, capital allocation, financial planning and reporting, and enterprise growth.

Most recently, Ms. Hays served as Chief Financial Officer of PacSci EMC, an operating company within Ralliant Corporation (NYSE: RAL). PacSci EMC is a U.S. defense and space company whose products support major defense customers. During her tenure as CFO, Ms. Hays helped lead a significant expansion of the business, with substantial revenue growth and booked backlog increasing to US$1 billion.

Of particular relevance to Gunnison's strategy of strengthening its position within the U.S. critical minerals and defense supply chains, Ms. Hays helped PacSci EMC secure a US$27 million Defense Industrial Base Consortium award to expand production capacity. She also directed efforts and investments in critical capabilities, including capacity expansion, strategic sourcing and advanced manufacturing to meet increased demand to support U.S. Department of War.

Prior to Ralliant, Ms. Hays spent approximately 17 years with Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC), in senior finance positions across government contracting, growth and incubation, manufacturing, global supply chain, M&A integration and divestitures, and risk and controls. During her time supporting Intel's government contracting business, she helped grow Intel's U.S. government contract portfolio and supported the Company's strategy with key U.S. government agencies and research laboratories. Her responsibilities at Intel included strategic planning of billions of dollars of capital and operating expenditures, together with extensive experience within the financial reporting, internal control environment, and U.S. government contracting.

Ms. Hays holds a Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science in Finance from Arizona State University.

Craig Hallworth, President and CEO of Gunnison Copper, commented:

"Jennifer is an exceptional addition to our executive team at an important point in Gunnison's growth. She brings a rare combination of CFO leadership, public company finance experience and direct experience within the U.S. defense industrial base.

"As we advance Gunnison as a major new source of domestically produced copper, Jennifer's background is exceptionally well aligned with our strategy. Her experience securing government-supported investment, working within strategically important U.S. supply chains and managing capital-intensive businesses will be highly valuable as we advance the Gunnison Project."

Ms. Hays commented:

"I am excited to join Gunnison at such an important stage in the Company's development. Copper is increasingly critical to U.S. economic growth, manufacturing, infrastructure and national security, and Gunnison has an opportunity to become a nationally significant producer.

ABOUT GUNNISON COPPER

Gunnison Copper Corp. is a multi-asset pure-play copper developer and producer that controls the Cochise Mining District (the district), containing 12 known deposits within an 8 km economic radius, in the Southern Arizona Copper Belt.

Its flagship asset, the Gunnison Copper Project, has a main pit Measured and Indicated Mineral Resource containing over 846 million tons with a total copper grade of 0.33% containing 5.19 billion pounds of copper (Measured Mineral Resource of 192 million tons at 0.37% containing 1.42 billion pounds of copper and Indicated Mineral Resource of 655 million tons at 0.31% containing 3.77 billion pounds of copper).

The Strong & Harris satellite deposit, located approximately 1.9 miles from the Gunnison processing facilities, is also included in the mine plan and hosts an Inferred Mineral Resource of 76 million tons grading 0.49% total copper (0.32% CuOx) at a 0.07% cutoff, 0.56% zinc and 0.12 oz/ton silver, containing approximately 740 million pounds of copper, including 483 million pounds of oxide copper, as well as zinc (856 million pounds) and silver (9.0 million ounces).

A preliminary economic assessment ("PEA") was completed in March 2026 for the Gunnison Project yielding robust economics including an NPV8% of $2 billion, IRR of 23%, and payback period of 3.9 years. It is being developed as a conventional operation with open pit mining, heap leach, and SX/EW refinery to produce finished copper cathode on-site with direct rail link. The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. There is no certainty that the conclusions reached in the PEA will be realized. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

In addition, Gunnison's Johnson Camp Asset, which is now in production, is fully funded by Nuton LLC, a Rio Tinto Venture, with a production capacity of up to 25 million lbs of finished copper cathode annually.

Other significant deposits controlled by Gunnison in the district, with potential to be economic satellite feeder deposits for Gunnison Project infrastructure, include South Star, and eight other deposits.

For more information on the Company, please visit our website at www.GunnisonCopper.com .

For additional information on the Gunnison Project, please refer to the technical report titled "Gunnison Project NI 43-101 Technical Report, Preliminary Economic Assessment, Cochise County, Arizona, USA" with an effective date of March 18, 2026 filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca .

For additional information on the Johnson Camp Mine, please refer to the technical report titled "Johnson Camp Mine NI 43-101 Technical Report, Cochise County, Arizona, USA" with an effective date of March 18, 2026 filed on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca .

Dr. Roland Goodgame, Senior VP of Project Development of the Company is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Dr. Goodgame has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release.

For further information regarding this press release, please contact:

Gunnison Copper Corp. Concord Place, Suite 300, 2999 North 44th Street, Phoenix, AZ, 85018

Melissa Mackie T: 647.533.4536 E: info@GunnisonCopper.com www.GunnisonCopper.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains "forward-looking information" concerning anticipated developments and events that may occur in the future. Forward-looking information contained in this news release includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to: (i) the intention to deploy the Nuton® technology at the Johnson Camp mine and future production therefrom; (ii) the continued funding of the stage 2 work program by Nuton; (v) the details and expected results of the stage two work program; (iii) future production and production capacity from the Company's mineral projects; (iv) the results of the preliminary economic assessment on the Gunnison Project; (v) the exploration and development of the Company's mineral projects; and (vi) the expected contributions of Ms. Hays.

In certain cases, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "occur" or "be achieved" suggesting future outcomes, or other expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions, intentions or statements about future events or performance. Forward-looking information contained in this news release is based on certain factors and assumptions regarding, among other things, Nuton will continue to fund the stage 2 work program, the availability of financing to continue as a going concern and implement the Company's operational plans, the estimation of mineral resources, the realization of resource estimates, copper and other metal prices, the timing and amount of future development expenditures, the estimation of initial and sustaining capital requirements, the estimation of labour and operating costs (including the price of acid), the availability of labour, material and acid supply, receipt of and compliance with necessary regulatory approvals and permits, timelines for government review of permit applications, the estimation of insurance coverage, and assumptions with respect to currency fluctuations, environmental risks, title disputes or claims, and other similar matters. While the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect.

Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include risks related to t the Company not obtaining adequate financing to continue operations, Nuton failing to continue to fund the stage 2 work program, the breach of debt covenants, risks inherent in the construction and operation of mineral deposits, including risks relating to changes in project parameters as plans continue to be redefined including the possibility that mining operations may not be sustained at the Gunnison Copper Project, risks related to the delay in review and approval of work plans and permits, variations in mineral resources and reserves, grade or recovery rates, risks relating to the ability to access infrastructure, risks relating to changes in copper and other commodity prices and the worldwide demand for and supply of copper and related products, risks related to increased competition in the market for copper and related products, risks related to current global financial conditions on the Company's business, uncertainties inherent in the estimation of mineral resources, access and supply risks, risks related to the ability to access acid supply on commercially reasonable terms, reliance on key personnel, operational risks inherent in the conduct of mining activities, including the risk of accidents, labour disputes, increases in capital and operating costs and the risk of delays or increased costs that might be encountered during the construction or mining process, regulatory risks including the risk that permits may not be obtained in a timely fashion or at all, financing, capitalization and liquidity risks, risks related to disputes concerning property titles and interests, environmental risks and the additional risks identified in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's reports and filings with applicable Canadian securities regulators.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/316224

TMX Newsfile

September 28, 2026 - 3:00 AM PDT

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