If Surge Copper’s (TSXV: SURG; US-OTC: SRGXF) Berg copper-moly porphyry project in central B.C. were operating today, its production profile of 126 million lb. copper a year over a 30-year mine life would make it a top-three copper-producing mine in Canada.It would be alongside Teck Resources’ (TSX: TECK.A/TECK.B; NYSE: TECK) Highland Valley copper-moly mine (225 million lb. copper produced in 2024) and Taseko Metals’ (TSX: TKO; NYSE: TGB) Gibraltar copper-moly mine (106 million lb. copper produced in 2024), Canada’s largest and second-largest copper producers, respectively.But Berg wouldn’t just be a top copper producer in Canada, it would be the country’s largest molybdenum producer by nearly an order of magnitude, with 13 million lb. of the critical metal produced annually. Molybdenum, a critical metal renowned for its heat and corrosion resistance, is crucial in high-performance steel applications in industries ranging from aerospace and defense, to energy, chip making and electric vehicles.“It’s quite a large moly credit so Berg is a unique beast in that sense,” says Surge Copper CEO Leif Nilsson. “Molybdenum is a strategic metal with a lot of important uses that people should care about right now.”Looking ahead, the company is laying the groundwork to complete a prefeasibility study on Berg toward the end of the year.Test resultsRecent results from comprehensive metallurgical work over the last year have also demonstrated the project is amenable to conventional flotation processes for producing saleable copper and molybdenum concentrates.Locked cycle tests on over 1,350 kilograms of material returned up to 90.7% copper and 93% molybdenum recoveries to a bulk concentrate grading 29.7% copper. The test-work also confirmed high separation efficiency (molybdenum recoveries of 94.6% to 97.4% with rapid and simple flotation kinetics), and a clean final product with no deleterious elements.“There’s nothing tricky about the concentrate flow sheet,” adds Nilsson. “Some projects utilize newer technologies, but we’re proposing off-the-shelf flotation. There are no oxide zones, so no SX-EW, and no sulphide leaching. It’s just a traditional concentrate flow sheet.”Berg, in the central B.C. Tahtsa Ranges about 100 km south of Smithers and 150 km southwest of Prince George, is one of the largest undeveloped copper-molybdenum projects in North America. (ICE TORONTO)

Fonte notizia: https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/