May 29, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia – Surge Copper Corp. (the “Company” or “Surge Copper”) (TSX-V:SURG), is pleased to announce that Mr. Randall Thompson, the former President of Huckleberry Mines Ltd., has joined the Company’s Board of Directors.
Mr. Thompson has extensive mine operating and mine building expertise, including 10 years direct experience on mines and mine projects in British Columbia. From 2012 to 2017 he was President and Chief Operating Officer at the Huckleberry Mine, located directly adjacent to Surge Copper’s Ootsa Project. Mr. Thompson has supervised large development projects including the roughly $100 million expansion of the Huckleberry Mine and the $450 million construction of the Jabal Sayid mine in Saudi Arabia for Equinox Minerals. More recently Mr. Thompson worked on optimizing operations for the Silvertip Mine in northern BC prior to the takeover of JDS Silver by Coeur Mining. Previous board experience includes directorship for Minto Explorations in the Yukon and the Mining Association of British Columbia.
Dr. Shane Ebert, CEO of Surge Copper commented, “Randall’s knowledge and commitment to safety, environmental compliance, and operational excellence will be a huge benefit as we ramp up our exploration efforts while evaluating development opportunities for our Ootsa Project. His strong technical background and creativity is an excellent addition to our Board. We welcome him to our team and are excited to move our project forward”.
Mr. Conrad Swanson has stepped down from the Board to make room for Mr. Thompson and will become an advisor to the Company. Mr. Thompson has been granted 200,000 stock options exercisable at $0.11 per share for a term of five years from the date of grant pursuant to the Company’s stock option plan.
Financing
The Company has arranged a non-brokered private placement of up to 400,000 units at a price of $0.12 per unit for gross proceeds of $48,000. Each unit consists of one common share of the Company and one-half of one non-transferable common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant will entitle the holder to acquire an additional common share of the Company at an exercise price of $0.15 per share for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the private placement.
The proceeds of the private placement will be used for the purpose of carrying out the exploration programs on the Company’s British Columbia property and for general working capital.
The financing is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.
About Surge Copper Corp.
The Company owns a 100% interest in the Ootsa Property, an advanced stage exploration project containing the East Seel, West Seel and Ox porphyry deposits located adjacent to the open pit Huckleberry copper mine. The property contains NI 43-101 compliant resources of 224 million tonnes in the Measured and Indicated categories with contained metals of 1.1 billion pounds of copper and 1 million ounces of gold as summarized in the table below.
Ootsa Project Pit Constrained Mineral Resource Estimate at $8.50/t NSR Cut-off Value
|
Category |
Tonnes (‘000’s) |
CuEq % |
Cu % |
Au g/t |
Mo % |
Ag g/t |
CuEq M lbs |
Cu M lbs |
Au K oz |
Mo M lbs |
Ag K oz |
|
Measured |
187,148 |
0.38 |
0.23 |
0.15 |
0.021 |
2.8 |
1,568 |
934 |
916 |
85 |
17,089 |
|
Indicated |
37,041 |
0.35 |
0.21 |
0.12 |
0.023 |
2.8 |
286 |
175 |
146 |
19 |
3,368 |
|
M&I |
224,189 |
0.37 |
0.22 |
0.15 |
0.021 |
2.8 |
1,854 |
1,109 |
1,062 |
104 |
20,457 |
On February 9, 2016, the Company announced a positive Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Ootsa Property with potential for low capital cost, low risk and rapid pay back utilizing existing infrastructure in the district with a contract mining and toll milling scenario. The study recommends the Company continue to advance the Ootsa Project with extended and advanced technical studies with the intention of moving the project toward a production decision.
The current technical report supporting the resource statement and PEA is available on SEDAR or the Company’s website at www.surgecopper.com and has an effective date of January 2016. The resource estimate uses $8.50 per tonne NSR cut-off value. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and by definition do not demonstrate economic viability. There is no certainty that all or any part of the mineral resource will be converted into mineral reserves. A ‘Measured Mineral Resource’ is that part of a mineral resource for which quantity, grade or quality, densities, shape and physical characteristics are so well established that they can be estimated with confidence sufficient to allow the appropriate application of technical and economic parameters, to support production planning and evaluation of the economic viability of the deposit. An ‘Indicated Mineral Resource’ is that part of a Mineral Resource for which quantity, grade or quality, densities, shape and physical characteristics can be estimated with a level of confidence sufficient to allow the appropriate application of technical and economic parameters, to support mine planning and evaluation of the economic viability of the deposit. Copper Equivalent (CuEq) calculations are based on base case metal price (US$3/lb Cu, US$1260/oz Au, US$10.30/lb Mo, and US$17/oz Ag) and process recovery assumptions, and take into account smelter payable rates and refining costs. M&I = measured and indicated. The resource update and Preliminary Economic Assessment was completed by P&E Mining Consultants Inc. in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.
Dr. Shane Ebert P.Geo., is the Qualified Person for the Ootsa project as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has approved the technical disclosure contained in this news release.
ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
“Shane Ebert”
President and Chief Executive Officer
For Further information, please contact:
Telephone: 604-718-5454
Toll Free: 888-500-4587
info@surgecopper.com
Or
Don Mosher
Corporate Development
Telephone: 604-685-6465
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
This News Release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "will", "may", "should", "expects", "plans", or "anticipates" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. These statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking-statements. Such uncertainties and risks may include, among others, actual results of the Company's exploration activities being different than those expected by management, delays in obtaining or failure to obtain required government or other regulatory approvals or financing, inability to procure equipment and supplies in sufficient quantities and on a timely basis, equipment breakdown and bad weather. While these forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect the Company's current judgment regarding the direction of its business, actual results will almost always vary, sometimes materially, from any estimates, predictions, projections, assumptions or other future performance suggests herein. Except as required by applicable law, the Company does not intend to update any forward-looking statements to conform these statements to actual results.