Surge Copper Acquires 100% Interest in Berg

Vancouver, British Columbia, Dec. 27, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Surge Copper Corp. (TSXV: SURG) (OTCQB: SRGXF) (Frankfurt: G6D2) (“Surge” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive purchase agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) with Thompson Creek Metals Company Inc. (“TCM”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Centerra Gold Inc., to acquire a 100% interest in the Berg Property for total consideration of 21,221,165 common shares of Surge, resulting in TCM owning approximately 15% of Surge’s outstanding common shares (the “Transaction”). The Purchase Agreement replaces an earlier December 2020 Option Agreement between Surge and TCM which allowed Surge to earn a 70% interest in the Berg Property by spending C$8 million over five years and issuing to TCM C$5 million in common shares of the Company.

Leif Nilsson, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We are very pleased to be consolidating a 100% interest in the Berg Property, which firmly establishes our ownership position in the broader Berg-Huckleberry-Ootsa district, results in a more simplified ownership structure for all parties, and provides Surge with significantly more flexibility in future financing choices to advance its assets. Surge now holds a simple 100% ownership interest in a contiguous 125,499-hectare land package that hosts the Berg Project, for which we released a maiden NI 43-101 compliant PEA in June 2023, the Ootsa Project, for which we released an updated NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate in June 2022, and an extensive pipeline of exploration targets prospective for porphyry copper and associated breccia and hydrothermal vein style base metal and precious metal deposits. Looking forward, our goal is to continue to advance and de-risk this large, emerging critical minerals district and systematically explore the high-potential regional targets. We value our partnership with Centerra and look forward to welcoming them as a significant shareholder in Surge going forward.”

Figure 1. District Map.

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About the Berg Property

The Berg Property subject to the Purchase Agreement is 34,798 hectares in size and is contiguous with the remainder of Surge’s 100%-owned mineral claims. Located on the Berg Property is the Berg deposit, for which Surge announced an NI 43-101 compliant Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) and an accompanying Mineral Resource Estimate (“MRE”) in June 2023 (see June 13, 2023 Press Release)¹. The PEA outlined a large-scale, stand-alone greenfield development project with a simple design and high outputs of critical minerals located in a safe jurisdiction with world-class infrastructure. Highlights from the PEA include: