JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Diversified mining company African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) has entered into a subscription agreement for a private placement financing with Surge Copper, a Canadian company that is advancing an emerging critical metals district in British Columbia.

ARM will subscribe for 39 608 708 common Surge shares for C$3.8-million through its wholly-owned subsidiary ARM Copper.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed ARM, headed by executive chairperson Dr Patrice Motsepe, will own 15% of Surge's shares on completion of the placement, which is subject to TSX Venture Exchange and South African Reserve Bank approval.

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.

Surge’s contiguous mineral claim package hosts multiple advanced porphyry deposits with compliant resources of copper, molybdenum, gold and silver – metals which are described as being critical inputs to the low-carbon energy transition and associated electrification technologies.

Surge’s 100%-owned Berg project has copper, molybdenum, silver and gold in measured, indicated and inferred categories. It also owns the Ootsa Property exploration project, which encompasses the Seel and Ox porphyry deposits that are located next to Imperial Metals’ opencast Huckleberry copper mine. Ootsa has copper, gold, molybdenum and silver in measured, indicated and inferred categories.

The compliant preliminary economic assessment on the Berg project announced by Surge in June 2023 outlined a greenfield critical metals development project highlighted by a 30-year mine life.

Total payable production was calculated to be 2.6-million tonnes of copper equivalent and 1.7-million tonnes of copper.

The mineral resource estimate showed a combined measured and indicated resource of one-billion tonnes with gradings given as 0.23% copper, 0.03% molybdenum, 4.6 g/t silver and 0.02 g/t gold.