News

Assays for 16 Holes Pending

March 24, 2021, Vancouver, British Columbia – Surge Copper Corp. (TSXV:SURG) (“Surge” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce assay results for multiple resource definition and exploration holes from the Company’s 100% owned Ootsa Property in British Columbia.

Highlights

• Hole S21-228 intersected 585 metres grading 0.57% copper equivalent1 with the zone remaining open at depth
• Hole S21-228 includes multiple higher-grade zones such as 0.99% copper equivalent over 16 metres and 0.76% copper equivalent over 44 metres
• Hole S21-228 opens up significant expansion potential to the southeast with a 585 meter vertical zone of continuous mineralization, containing above deposit-average grades
• Hole S21-228 ended in strong mineralization, leaving the deposit fully open at depth and to the southeast

Dr. Shane Ebert, VP Exploration, commented: “Hole S21-228 is a vertical step out hole on the southeastern side of West Seel. The hole encountered a large, continuous zone of strong mineralization over 585 metres, ending in strong mineralization hosted within the deep West Seel intrusive. This intercept extends known mineralization up to 175 metres to the southeast in the lower portions of the deposit and represents the deepest zone of continuous strong mineralization encountered to date at West Seel, significantly opening the deposit for further expansion both at depth and laterally to the southeast. Mineralization in the hole occurs both within a large intrusion that contains potassic alteration and strong quartz veining, and in volcanic, sedimentary, and intrusive rocks overlying the intrusion. The projection of this mineralized contact and intrusion to the northwest and southeast provides the company with a very large and compelling exploration target. Pending results from holes S21-231, S21-233, and S21-239 will help understand the expansion potential of West Seel in these directions. Further stepouts to the southeast in this area will be a priority when drilling resumes in the summer.”

The winter 2021 drill program at Ootsa has been completed with 20,028 metres drilled in 27 holes. Drilling is scheduled to resume in late May to early June following spring breakup and snow melt in the area.

Holes S20-226 and S21-228 - West Seel Deposit

Holes S20-226 and 228 both tested the West Seel deposit. Hole S20-226 was drilled at an azimuth of 208, a dip of -50 degrees, to a total depth of 959.4 metres. The hole helps to define the limit of West Seel mineralization to the southwest, returning mineralization from 3 metres depth grading 0.56% copper equivalent over 13 metres, along with 0.36% copper equivalent over 120 metres from 342 metres depth.

Hole S20-228 was a vertical hole drilled on the southeast side of the West Seel deposit to a depth of 795 metres. The hole is shown on Figure 1 and has successfully expanded the West Seel Deposit 175 metres to the southeast with the deposit remaining open for further expansion over a vertical interval exceeding 500 metres. Hole S20-228 returned 0.57% copper equivalent over 585 metres from 210 metres depth, including 0.68% copper equivalent over 164 metres from 272 metres depth.  Mineralization is interpreted to extend laterally above and along the upper contact of the West Seel intrusion, a deep and potentially large intrusive body containing potassic alteration and veining.  

Figure 1. West Seel Cross Section C-C’ showing results for Hole S21-228. See Figure 2 for section location.

Holes S20-225 and S20-227 – West Geophysical Target

Holes S20-225 and 227 both tested the West Geophysical target near the southwest edge of the West Seel deposit. Hole S20-225 was drilled at an azimuth of 225, a dip of -60 degrees, to a total depth of 620.2 metres. Hole S20-227 was drilled from the same location as hole S20-225 at an azimuth of 135, a dip of -60 degrees, to a total depth of 936.3 metres. Hole S20-227 intersected a 110 metre zone of anomalous porphyry style mineralization containing 0.1% copper, 0.03 g/t Au, and 0.007% molybdenum, with no other significant zones of mineralization intersected in either hole.

Holes S20-222 and S20-223 – East Geophysical Target

Holes S20-222 and 223 tested the East Geophysical target located 800 metres northeast of the East Seel Deposit. Hole S20-222 was drilled at an azimuth of 95, a dip of -58 degrees, to a total depth of 642 metres. Hole S20-223 was located 380 metres north of hole S20-222 and was drilled at an azimuth of 100, a dip of -60 degrees, to a total depth of 708 metres. The holes did not encounter any intervals of significant porphyry style mineralization but did intersect zones of sericite and clay alteration showing gold potential.

Hole S20-222 returned a high-grade gold intercept of 8.54 g/t over 2 metres from 50 metres depth. This high grade occurs within a larger zone of anomalous gold grading 0.19 g/t gold over 38 metres from 40 to 78 metres depth (averaged with the high grade capped at 2 g/t).

Hole S18-217 (drilled in 2018), located 250 metres south of hole S20-222, also hit a high-grade gold interval grading 9.40 g/t Au over 2 metres from 130 metres depth. There is potential for the high grade in holes S20-222 and S18-217 to be part of a larger high grade gold vein target controlled by a north-south trending extensional fault zone. Hole S20-221, drilled between holes S18-217 and S20-222, did not test this target as the hole encountered 90 metres of cover before hitting bedrock.

Wide spaced drilling conducted to date at the East Geophysical target shows increasing alteration and intrusive activity toward the south end of the anomaly which remains largely untested and warrants additional drill testing.

Drill Program Update

The fall 2020 to winter 2021 drilling program has been completed. During the program 20,028 metres was drilled in 27 holes. Drilling is scheduled to resume in late May to early June following spring breakup and snow melt in the area. Assay results for 11 holes have been received and released. A further 16 holes have been completed, processed, and submitted to the lab for assay with results pending. Figure 2 shows the locations of the 2020-2021 drill holes.

Figure 2. Plan map of drill hole locations for 2020-2021 Ootsa drill program.

Quality Control

All drill core is logged, photographed, and cut in half with a diamond saw. Half of the core is bagged and sent to Activation Laboratories Ltd. in Kamloops, British Columbia for analysis (which is ISO/IEC 17025 accredited), while the other half is archived and stored on site for verification and reference purposes. Gold is assayed using a 30g fire assay method and 37 additional elements are analyzed by Induced Coupled Plasma (ICP) utilizing a 4-acid digestion. Duplicate samples, blanks, and certified standards are included with every sample batch and then checked to ensure proper quality assurance and quality control.

Qualified Person

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.

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, owned by Imperial Metals. The Ootsa Property contains pit constrained NI 43-101 compliant resources of copper, gold, molybdenum and silver in the Measured and Indicated categories.

The Company is also earning into a 70% interest in the Berg Property from Centerra Gold. Berg is a large, advanced stage exploration project located 28 km northwest of the Ootsa deposits. Berg contains pit constrained 43-101 compliant resources of copper, molybdenum, and silver in the Measured and Indicated categories. Combined, the adjacent Ootsa and Berg properties give Surge a dominant land position in the Ootsa-Huckleberry-Berg district and control over four advanced porphyry deposits.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

“Leif Nilsson”
Chief Executive Officer

For Further information, please contact:
Telephone: +1 604 416 2978 or +1 604 558 5847
info@surgecopper.com
http://www.surgecopper.com

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. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward looking statements, including but not limited to the Company’s plans regarding the Berg Property and the Ootsa Property.  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, the ability to obtain adequate financing to conduct its planned exploration programs, inability to procure labour, equipment and supplies in sufficient quantities and on a timely basis, equipment breakdown, impacts of the current coronavirus pandemic, 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 suggestions 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.

1)  Copper equivalent (“CuEq”) has been used to express the combined, gross in-situ content of copper, gold, molybdenum, and silver with no adjustments made for recovery. It is provided for illustrative purposes only, and is calculated using the following pricing assumptions: US$3.00/lb copper, US$1,800/oz gold, US$10/lb molybdenum, and US$22/oz silver.