Ivanhoe Electric provides update on activities at Santa Cruz Copper Project

Ivanhoe Electric Executive Chairman Robert Friedland and President and Chief Executive Officer Taylor Melvin are pleased to provide an update on ongoing infill and exploration drilling and technical work at the Santa Cruz Copper Project, located west of Casa Grande, Arizona. Mr. Friedland commented: “Our extensive exploration and development drilling programs at the Santa Cruz Copper Project have yielded very strong results and continue to uncover the full potential of the project. By incorporating sustainable technologies and renewable energy into the upcoming Prefeasibility Study and leveraging cutting-edge underground material handling methods, we are advancing studies at Santa Cruz for a modern, high-grade, underground copper mine with very low projected carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions. The fourth quarter of 2023 was an important time for the advancement of our Santa Cruz Copper Project in Arizona. We significantly increased our development drilling activity and received substantial assays from recent exploration drilling. In addition to raising our level of confidence in the Santa Cruz and East Ridge mineral resource estimates, recent infill drilling identified a large, high-grade oxide domain in the Santa Cruz deposit. This domain contains higher copper grades and is located in better quality ground conditions than previously modeled in our 2023 Initial Assessment. Our ongoing development drilling and test work will support the studies required for our Santa Cruz Prefeasibility Study, which we expect to complete before the end of Q2 2025. Beyond our development drilling at Santa Cruz and East Ridge, assays from recent step-out exploration at Texaco Ridge identified wide zones of primary sulfide mineralization that could provide future growth for our Santa Cruz Project. The combined success of our recent development and exploration drilling programs at Santa Cruz provides us with strong momentum as we enter 2024.” 37 development drill holes totaling 25,176 meters have been drilled at the Santa Cruz and East Ridge Deposits since the release of the September 2023 Initial Assessment. The December 2022 Mineral Resource Estimate that formed the basis for the September 2023 Initial Assessment was modeled from 153,000 meters of drilling in 170 diamond drill holes. Since the effective date of the 2022 Mineral Resource Estimate, Ivanhoe Electric has completed an additional 76 drill holes, totaling 55,964 meters, with 25,176 meters drilled since the September 2023 Initial Assessment. Drilling activity at Santa Cruz ramped up in Q4 2023, with eight rigs drilling nearly 10,000 meters in November alone.