Surge Copper – Excellent Metallurgical Results and Further Derisking Work Advancing Towards The Pre-Feasibility Study At The Berg Project
Leif Nilsson, CEO & Director of Surge Copper (TSX.V:SURG – OTCQX:SRGXF), joins me for a comprehensive update on all derisking work and development work that is building towards a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS), including the excellent metallurgical results released today at their flagship copper-molybdenum-silver-gold Berg Project in British Columbia.
We start off reviewing the resource size and different metals contributions as well as the key economic metrics from the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) released in June 2023.
The updated Mineral Resource Estimate includes combined Measured & Indicated resource of 1.0 billion tonnes grading 0.23% copper, 0.03% molybdenum, 4.6 g/t silver, and 0.02 g/t gold, containing 5.1 billion pounds of copper, 633 million pounds of molybdenum, 150 million ounces of silver, and 744 thousand ounces of gold, plus an additional 0.5 billion tonnes of material in the Inferred category. Leif highlights that there has a been a fair bit of infill drilling completed over the last 2 years where more ounces will be moving from the inferred category and into the measured and indicated category when it gets updated along with the coming PFS.
The 2023 PEA outlined a base case after-tax NPV8% of C$2.1 billion and IRR of 20% based on long-term commodity price assumptions of US$4.00/lb copper, US$15.00/lb molybdenum, US$23/oz silver, and US$1,800/oz gold plus foreign exchange of 0.77 USDCAD. There is a projected 30-year mine life with total payable production of 5.8 billion pounds (2.6 million tonnes) of copper equivalent (CuEq), including 3.7 billion pounds (1.7 million tonnes) of copper.
Leif outlines that these economic metrics will see marked improvements in the upcoming PFS, based on a few different factors. The larger amount of resources in the indicated category will be a factor, as will the the geotechnical drilling showing the potential for steeper pit walls, and the inclusion of mineralization previously below the pit shell from that 2023 study. The conversation then shifted to the recent successful metallurgical tests that demonstrated improved recoveries for copper and molybdenum into the bulk concentrate, as well as the separation into the separate copper and moly concentrates.
Highlights of the metallurgical testing:
- 27 variability composites tested, covering all major rock and alteration types spatially distributed across all areas and depths of the proposed open pit
- Over 60 flotation tests conducted to optimize parameters and improve recoveries
- Locked cycle testing achieved up to 90.7% Cu and 93.0% Mo recovery to bulk concentrate grading 29.7% Cu
- Excellent copper-molybdenum separation confirmed, with Mo recoveries of 94.6% and 95.6% from bulk concentrates across the main hypogene and supergene composites respectively
Wrapping up we discussed a number of factors from what the permitting process will look like, the potential for government funding for critical minerals projects in British Columbia and Canada, the strategic partner they have in African Rainbow Minerals Limited (“ARM”) assisting the Project both financially and technically, and an overall sense of, and how the size and scale of the Berg stacks up to other large copper development assets in Canada.
If you have any follow-up questions for Leif regarding Surge Copper, then please email them to me at Shad@kereport.com.
- In full disclosure, Shad is a shareholder of Surge Copper at the time of this recording, and may choose to buy or sell shares at any time.
