African Rainbow Minerals Invests in growth and existing business
ARM acquired 15% of Surge Copper Corp (Surge) on 31 May 2024. Surge is a Canadian company that is advancing an emerging critical metals district in a well-developed region of British Columbia, Canada.
The company owns a large, contiguous mineral claim package that hosts multiple advanced porphyry deposits with pit-constrained NI 43-101-compliant resources of copper, molybdenum, gold and silver metals that are critical inputs to the low-carbon energy transition and associated electrification technologies.
Surge owns a 100% interest in the Berg project, which is in the north-western portion of the company’s 100%-owned 125 499-hectare contiguous land package in the Berg-Huckleberry-Ootsa district.
Surge announced an NI 43-101-compliant maiden preliminary economic assessment (PEA) and an accompanying Mineral Resource estimate on the Berg project in June 2023, outlining a large-scale, long-life project with a simple design and high outputs of critical minerals located in a safe jurisdiction near world-class infrastructure. The Berg deposit contains pit-constrained 43-101-compliant resources of copper, molybdenum, silver and gold in the Measured, Indicated and Inferred categories.
The company also owns a 100% interest in the Ootsa property, an advanced-stage exploration project containing the Seel and Ox porphyry deposits 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, Indicated and Inferred categories.
Bokoni Mine
The current priority is to conserve cash while ramping up production in a phased and measured manner, given depressed commodity prices. This approach will maximise the use of Bokoni’s existing surface and concentrator plant infrastructure, reducing capital costs.
Subsequent to year end, the construction of a chrome recovery plant was approved by the board. African Rainbow Minerals remains confident of the long-term profitability of Bokoni.
Existing operations
African Rainbow Minerals continued to invest in our existing operations with segmental capital expenditure of R8 564 million for the period (F2023: R7 201 million). The increase in capital expenditure was mainly due to the Merensky Project at Two Rivers Mine.
