JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa's diversified mining company African Rainbow Minerals has secured its 15% strategic shareholding in Surge Copper, a Toronto Stock Exchange-Venture Exchange company that is advancing an emerging critical metals district in British Columbia, Canada.

Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed ARM, headed by executive chairperson Dr Patrice Motsepe, is now a cornerstone investor in Surge, which owns 100% of the emerging Berg project and the longer-term Ootsa asset, which host porphyry copper, molybdenum, gold and silver deposits.

As a member of the International Council on Mining and Metals, ARM is a steward of minerals and metals that are critical to decarbonisation and sustainable development.

The private placement has been declared unconditional owing to all conditions precedent having been fulfilled, a Johannesburg Stock Exchange News announcement stated.

With copper demand expected to increase from 28.3-million tonnes in 2020 to 41-million tonnes by 2040 at a compound yearly growth rate of 1.85%, under-investment in new copper mines to meet climate goals is of major concern globally.

ARM’s C$3.9-million investment is the largest component of Surge’s completed C$5-million funding package.

ARM, having successfully subscribed for 41 373 414 common shares at C$0.095 a share, has the right to maintain its ownership position through future equity financings, as well as the right to appoint a member to a technical advisory committee.

On the technical front, Surge is looking forward to drawing on the project and operational know-how of ARM in advancing the Berg project, the first of the two assets to receive developmental mining focus.

Surge, headed by CEO Leif Nilsson, will be conducting six weeks of metallurgical test work programme at Berg, designed to advance flow sheet design parameters and confirm metallurgical recoveries acceptable for use in the prefeasibility study.

Last year’s preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of Berg pointed to an internal rate of return of 20% based on long-term commodity prices of $4.00/lb copper, $15.00/lb molybdenum, $23.00/oz silver, and $1 800/oz gold.

Berg is in the north-western portion of Surge’s 100%-owned 125 499 ha contiguous land package in the Berg-Huckleberry-Ootsa district.

A PEA points to a 30-year mine life with total payable production of 2.6-million tonnes of copper equivalent, including 1.7-million tonnes of copper itself.

The combined measured and indicated resource is an estimated one-billion tonnes of 0.23% copper, 0.03% molybdenum, 4.6 g/t silver, and 0.02 g/t gold.

Interestingly, the porphyry deposits of the Ootsa exploration project adjoin the opencast Huckleberry copper mine of the Vancouver-based Imperial Metals mining company.

Mining Weekly’s Projects-in-Progress reported earlier this year that mine planning at Berg is based on conventional drill, blast, load and haul opencast mining methods suited to the project location and local site requirements.

The process design envisaged is based on processing mineralised material from the Berg deposits through copper and molybdenum flotation to produce saleable copper and molybdenum concentrates.

Proposed mine facilities include:

• mining administration offices, a mine fleet, truck shop and mine workshop, as well as wash bays;
• common facilities, including an entrance/exit gatehouse, a security/medical office, an overall site administration building, potable water and fire water distribution systems, compressed air facilities and power distribution facilities, as well as diesel reception and communication areas;
• a near-pit mineralised material and waste crushing facility with associated electrical infrastructure;
• process facilities housed in the process plant, including grinding and classification, flotation, regrinding, concentrate handling, reagent mixing and distribution, as well as an assay laboratory, process plant workshop and warehouse; and
• an on-site camp, tailings and waste management facility, as well as a non-acid-generating rock storage facility.

The proposed processing plant is designed for a throughput of 90 000 t/d at 92% availability. The crushing circuit is designed with an availability of 75%.

Average production is estimated at 125.9-million pounds of copper, 13.3-million pounds of molybdenum, three-million ounces of silver and 12 000 oz of gold.

On an after-tax basis, the net present value, discounted at 8%, is estimated at C$2.1-billion, with a payback period of 3.9 years off envisaged capital expenditure of C$2-billion.