Prismo Metals (CSE: PRIZ / WKN: A2QEGD) reports an adjustment of key milestones for the 75% optioned Hot-Breccia project in the U.S. state of Arizona. The owner of the concessions, Walnut Mines LLC, has agreed to several deadline extensions. This provides Prismo Metals with additional time for planned exploration work and the preparation of a drilling program in one of North America’s most historic copper regions.
Specifically, expenditure and payment targets are extended into the years 2026 to 2028 – a step that management views as contributing to greater flexibility in evaluating strategic options.
Prismo Metals: Deadline Extensions and Next Steps
In detail, three dates have been rescheduled: The deadline for exploration expenditures of USD 1.75 million shifts from January 31, 2026, to January 31, 2027. The next expenditure target of USD 2.0 million moves from January 31, 2027, to January 31, 2028. Additionally, the due date for the final cash payment to Walnut Mines of USD 275,000 has been moved from January 31, 2026, to July 31, 2026. According to company statements, the additional months are intended to help find the optimal path for financing and implementing a drilling program. CEO Alain Lambert emphasizes that Prismo Metals is determined to advance Hot Breccia towards the start of drilling. Walnut Mines Manager Dr. Linus Keating also supports the adjustments with a view to focused resource allocation.
The agreements are significant for Prismo Metals as they create planning and financing buffers without abandoning the project focus. Especially in capital-intensive porphyry copper systems that require deep drilling, staggered milestones can pragmatically structure the sequence of geophysics, permits, drilling contractor awards, and drilling commencement.
Historical Data Supports the Geological Model
Hot Breccia is located in the heart of the Arizona Copper Belt and is near several world-class deposits and mines. Historical drilling by a Rio Tinto subsidiary in the 1970s documented multiple copper (and partly zinc) mineralization within thick altered carbonate packages at depths between approximately 640 and over 800 meters. Reported intersections included 23 m of 0.54% Cu from approx. 640 m (drill hole OC-1), 18 m of 1.4% Cu and 4.65% Zn from approx. 830 m (OCC-7), as well as sections of 7.6 m of 1.73% Cu and 0.11% Zn at about 703 m, and 4.6 m of 1.4% Cu and 0.88% Zn around 716 m (OCC-8). Prismo Metals interprets these intersections as indications of the margin of a larger system, controlled by skarn formation and possibly a deeper porphyry intrusion.
Several datasets support this view: older magnetic and other geophysical measurements, the distribution of dikes with skarn-bearing xenoliths at the surface, a ZTEM survey conducted in 2023, and an AI-supported evaluation. The modeled anomalous target area thus measures approximately 1,100 × 1,150 meters. Geologically, the company compares the framework conditions with known porphyry copper systems in the region, including the Resolution Project located approximately 40 kilometers northwest.
Project Overview: Location, Geology, and Objectives
According to Prismo Metals, the Hot-Breccia project comprises 227 contiguous claims totaling 1,420 hectares in the heart of the Arizona Copper Belt – between established locations such as Morenci, Ray, and Resolution. Characteristic features include a variety of porphyritic dikes and several breccia bodies that have transported fragments of highly mineralized carbonates along with volcanic and sedimentary clasts to the surface. Outcrop sampling indicates copper mineralization associated with dacite dikes; the fragments are thus derived from depths of approximately 400 to 1,000 meters.
Beneath the sequence of Cretaceous andesite volcanics lie Paleozoic carbonate series, which are considered favorable host rocks for high-grade skarn and porphyry copper mineralization in the region – similar to the stratigraphies at Freeport-McMoRan’s historical operations in the vicinity. The combination of skarn-type magnetite formation (magnetic highs), alteration over several hundred meters of thickness, and deep historical intercepts defines the primary targets for future drilling.
Timeline, Drilling Concept, and Data Situation
For the next phase of work, Prismo Metals plans a drilling program designed to penetrate the entire prospective carbonate stratigraphy and advance into the presumed intrusion/breccia zone. The target definition will be progressively refined: information from ongoing drilling will inform the orientation of further holes – a common practice in complex porphyry systems. The now agreed-upon deadline extensions provide the team with the opportunity to coordinate permits, service providers, and logistics, and to further calibrate geophysical and geological models in parallel.
An important note concerns the quality of historical data: The old cores are no longer available; reported results come from drill reports, photos, and logs, which do not always contain complete analyses or descriptions. Prismo Metals emphasizes that information from neighboring projects – however insightful it may be for geological understanding – does not allow for direct conclusions about future results at Hot Breccia. Nevertheless, they provide context for the targeted drilling depth and the expected rock sequences.
