Categories: Base Metals
Topics: General Base Metals

Surge Copper (TSX-V: SURG)(OTC: SRGXF) CEO Leif Nilsson on Closing of C$14M Financing & Current Drilling plus Newly Released Assays from Flagship Ootsa Copper Project, British Columbia, Canada

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Surge Copper — Mr. Leif Nilsson. Leif, how are you today?

Leif Nilsson: I'm doing well, thanks. How are you, Gerardo?

Gerardo Del Real: I am well. Thank you for coming on. It's been a busy year for you, frankly, but it's been a very busy couple of weeks. You just announced the closing of a C$14 million bought deal private placement on June 9th. 

And today, or yesterday I should say, you announced an intercept of 432 meters of 0.61% copper equivalent and 506 meters of 0.43% copper equivalent in the final winter drilling results from West Seel. First, let's start with the financing. 

Leif, congratulations! That's a pretty robust treasury moving forward.

Leif Nilsson: Yeah, thanks. So I guess the context on that transaction, we had gone out with a C$10 million bought deal led by a group out of Vancouver called PI Financial. The other firms in the syndicate were Raymond James and Haywood Securities. So all very experienced folks in the junior mining space. That deal was ultimately upsized from C$10 million to C$14 million. 

And as you mentioned, that just got wrapped up last week. So that's all closed; proceeds are in the treasury. And we're in a very strong position going forward to advance our exploration programs, really, straight across the district over the next two years or so.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent! And let's pivot to West Seel. Then we can talk about the drilling program that has already commenced with two core rigs at Ootsa. You announced, I highlighted the two intercepts there, but you announced final assay results for multiple resource definition and exploration holes at the property. 

Can we go over those and provide a bit of context there?

Leif Nilsson: For sure. So just as a reminder to your audience, this was a drill program that commenced at the tail end of 2020. It was a 20,000-meter program so that's in the context of the total meterage that comprises the drilling database at the Ootsa property or the resources at that project. It's about a sixth of the overall drilling. So we made a pretty significant investment in the project over the course of the winter through that 20,000 meters. 

This release that we put out was the last batch of results from that program. We highlighted a number of intervals that I think met our objectives and achieved our goals of expanding the high-grade core at West Seel in multiple directions. So out of the four or five holes that were highlighted in that press release, one of them was situated over on the west side of West Seel and did its job of extending mineralization over in that direction.

We also released the furthest hole to the northeast on that fenceline, if you will, at West Seel. That was a very significant interval and pushed the high-grade core at West Seel to the northeast in that direction, and we'll be looking to follow up with additional holes in and around that area. 

And then lastly, there were three holes that were collared in between the two deposits. So in the kind of gap zone as we call it between East Seel and West Seel. They were pointing in a variety of directions so we had some pretty strong intervals and some holes that were pointed toward the west that did the job of extending that high-grade core mineralization a little bit to the east at West Seel.

And then we were able to prove up some lower grade but near-surface mineralization in that gap zone between the two deposits. So overall, a number of very significant intervals that came out of that update. And then, as you said, later on in the press release we provided some guidance and an update on the fact that the summer program has kicked off. So we've got two rigs turning at the moment. 

We've provided guidance to the market that there's a minimum 5,000-meter drill program taking place at West Seel that may be upsized as we move through the summer depending on engineering feedback that we get and results as they come in. But the real objective of that is to, as we said earlier in the year, to finish the job of drilling off West Seel, cut off that database, and proceed with a resource update later in the year.

And lastly, we are kicking off with the proceeds of this financing a pretty exciting and district-wide exploration program. So there are some targets in the near resource area that will see some early drilling pretty soon. And then we also have this airborne ZTEM geophysical survey that is currently being flown. 

So when I was at-site last week, we got to see some of that activity taking place. And we're very excited to get the results of that as it will be a very helpful tool for us in guiding future exploration, really, straight across the district.

Gerardo Del Real: Excellent. Before I let you go, Leif, I have to ask you about the copper space. We've had a mild pullback which I, frankly, think it's healthy. We're still at US$4.33 a pound. The future in the short-term, mid-term, and long-term looks extremely bright. But I'd love your thoughts on the copper space and where things stand now.

Leif Nilsson: Yeah, I mean, I think we've been seeing in commodity markets across the board a lot of very interesting price action, which I would really chalk up to a lot of supply chain issues that are really a big lesson to be learned from the pandemic.

So you're seeing that in agricultural commodities, lumber, and, of course, a lot of metals. So I wouldn't take any of the near-term price action or the recent price action as something to be read into too deeply about the long-term macro thesis with copper. 

I think everyone in this business remains very excited about the backdrop there in the business in terms of those big megatrends — drivers of future demand — in the copper space and then some of the longer-term supply issues we're seeing with lack of new discoveries, declining grades in the major producing regions, and things of that nature. 

So the future remains really about as bright as it's ever been for the copper space. And I think a lot of the near-term volatility is just in relation to some of these COVID-related supply chain kinks working their way through the market.

Gerardo Del Real: Well said, well said. Leif, thank you so much for your time today. I appreciate it. Anything else before I let you go?

Leif Nilsson: No, that's it. I really appreciate the time. And thanks for the call, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Looking forward to having you back on. Thank you.

Leif Nilsson: Cheers. Bye-bye.

Gerardo Del Real: Bye now.