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American Copper Corp. Acquires Ridgestake Copper-Gold Project in Prolific Mining Belt and Adjacent to Taseko Mines' New Prosperity Project

DENVER, CO--(Marketwired - Aug 12, 2013) - American Copper Corp. (OTCBB: AMCU) (herein after "American Copper" and/or "the Company") announces the Company's acquisition of the Ridgestake Copper-Gold Project as of June 2013. The copper-gold-silver-molybdenum prospect is located 77 miles (125 km) SW of Williams Lake in south-central British Columbia (BC), Canada, (just north of the Washington state border). The prospect is accessed via Provincial Highways and established forestry resource roadways.

The Ridgestake Prospect comprises 7 mineral claims totaling ~7,733 acres (3,129.48 hectares). The claims lie in a prolific mineral belt covering a 60-mile (100-km) area that contains several zones of copper and gold mineralization.[1]

Within the belt, and immediately adjacent to the prospect, is one of Canada's largest undeveloped copper-gold projects: the New Prosperity Project, which is under development by Taseko Mines (NYSE: TGB). The New Prosperity Project represents Proven and Probable reserves of 3.6 billion pounds of copper and 7.7 million ounces of gold.[2] New Prosperity is projected to produce an average 108 million pounds of copper and 247 thousand ounces of gold per year over a 20-year mine life.[3]

Mining activity and other deposits within the mineral belt include Bralorne Pioneer mine (4.2 million oz of gold production), Poison Mountain (280 Mt reserves at 0.261% copper & 0.142 g/t gold), Taseko Empress deposit (11 Mt at 0.61% copper & 0.023 oz/t gold), Pellaire deposit (estimated 90,000 tons at 0.79 oz/t gold; produced 2000 oz in 2002), and Taylor-Windfall (past gold producer).[1]

Roughly 18 miles (30 km) NE of the Ridgestake Prospect, the Newton Joint Venture includes 4 porphyry-style copper-molybdenum drill targets that Amarc Resources (TSX VENTURE: AHR) has identified for drill testing. Further north, Amarc also discovered the important Newton bulk tonnage gold deposit in 2010. The Newton deposit represents inferred mineral resources of 111.5 Mt grading 0.44 g/t gold and 2.1 g/t silver, containing 1.6 million ounces of gold and 7.7 million ounces of silver. The Newton deposit is located in the province's new gold belt, which also includes New Gold Inc.'s (TSX: NGD) 10+ million ounce bulk tonnage Blackwater gold deposit.[4]

The Ridgestake Prospect represents at least 2 types of potential mineralization. The first is copper-gold mineralization of the type related to porphyry copper systems, as at Taseko Mines' Prosperity deposit and other deposits in the belt. Porphyry copper systems have been exploited as bulk tonnage operations for over 100 years and account for the bulk of the world's copper production. The second potential type of mineralization is complex gold-copper mineralization similar to the Blackwater gold deposit to the northwest. Although possibly porphyry-related, this type of mineralization has strong stratigraphic and structural controls on mineralization distribution. The Newton discovery to the north of the property and to the north of the Prosperity deposit is interpreted to be of this type.[1]