RE:RE:Here’s the full news release—- Bea, in its current state the Huckleberry mine complex is far too small and outdated to be useful to Surge for any significant length of time.
Surge now controls over 800,000,000 tons of ore (with much more coming in the pending resource update), and Huckleberry can only process 18,000 tons per day if it's operating at full capacity. Even if Surge could only mine a measly 50% of its ore, that would take over 60 years to process it, and by then the mill would be close to 100 years old. Surge needs a much larger (60,000 tons per day) processing capacity to be efficient and reach its full potential. Furthermore, the aging Huckleberry complex isn't suitable for the zero carbon future that's in the works.
If Huckleberry has any value to Surge it's as an already permitted mine with a starter mill to bring in some cash while building a better, larger facility. Imperial had ample opportunity to pick up Surge's assets at fire-sale prices. That opportunity was kicked around -- including having an Imerial executive on Surge's Board of Directors -- and it never materialized. So, Surge's plan to go it alone makes much more sense -- control it's own destiny rather than continue waiting on a potential partner that's only a second-rate company.
Imperial's not a very good operator, in my opinion, and only has cash flow because it's partnered with Newcrest at Red Chris, and has an Alberta billionaire injecting tens of millions of dollars to keep it going. Just look at Mount Polley as an example of Imperial's terrible performance as a stand alone operator.
Surge is on the right path now -- without Imperial -- but needs better exposure in the market. Surge's CEO is a savvy guy, and hopefully will pull it out of this slump soon...although "hope" is a poor business plan.