April 3, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia – Surge Copper Corp. (the “Company” or “Surge Copper”) (TSX-V:SURG), is pleased to provide an update on planned 2018 exploration activities at the Company’s 100% owned Ootsa Property in British Columbia. The Ootsa Property is an advanced stage copper-gold exploration project containing the East Seel, West Seel and Ox porphyry deposits and is located adjacent to the Huckleberry open pit copper mine.
2018 Ootsa Drilling
Exploration drilling is planned for 2018 and will focus on multiple copper-gold porphyry targets immediately surrounding the East and West Seel deposits. This drilling will test for the fault-offset portion of the high-grade East Seel deposit and test a 1 km by 1 km zone of high chargeability that is located directly adjacent to the West Seel deposit. In addition to drill testing new targets, some drilling will be focused on optimizing the existing East and West Seel deposits, targeting expansions to existing resources and known higher grade trends where they remain open. The goal of the 2018 drilling program will be to create increased flexibility in future project development and help establish the viability of Ootsa as a stand-alone operation. A presentation outlining the main 2018 exploration targets is available here: Ootsa_2018_proposed_exploration_targets.
2018 Surface Exploration
During 2018 the Company plans to advance several early stage copper, gold, and silver exploration targets to better understand the potential pipeline of new targets moving forward. The focus will be on high grade mineralization with potential to positively influence development of the district, and on new zones of porphyry style copper-gold mineralization. This program will include low cost surface work such as mapping, surface sampling, and trenching, and will be conducted on multiple targets with known silver, gold, copper, zinc and lead. Planned surface work will include re-establishing road access to the historic Captain Mine, where previous sampling by the Company has returned up to 2220 g/t Ag from a vein exposed in underground workings over a strike length of 100 metres. At Captain a large zone of alteration surrounds the known high-grade veins, and this alteration zone will be trenched and sampled to evaluate the potential for additional veins as well as bulk minable copper-gold-silver.
Permits and Timing
The Company has applied for a new 5-year exploration permit which will include up to 150 new drill holes and allow the Company to maintain its exploration camp and conduct additional trenching, line cutting, and geophysical surveys. The exploration program is anticipated to start in June pending receipt of all required permits and funding. The final scope and cost of the drilling and exploration program will be finalized in April or May. To date the Company has drilled over 122,066 metres of core in 353 holes on the Ootsa Property and has an excellent track record of making new discoveries and expanding known zones. Additional information on the Ootsa Property is available on the Company’s website at www.surgecopper.com.
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.