Surge Copper’s Berg Project south of Houston is currently working through its environmental assessment.
The company submitted its initial project description on Sept. 9 after several years of work.
The mine will pull copper, molybdenum and silver from west of Huckleberry Mine.
“Some of the earliest exploration work on the Berg deposit dates back to the 1960s but there were periods of time almost 20 years in length where there was no work happening,” said Surge CEO Leif Nilsson.
Surge took over the project in 2020 and has done more than half the work advancing it according to Nilsson.
The company held open houses last week in Smithers and Houston with one in Burns Lake happening on Thursday at The Gathering Place starting at 4 p.m.
Nilsson said they are part of the initial phase of the environmental assessment, with collected information being used in later stages of the process.
“The interests and the initial feedback are very consistent across the board,” said Nilsson.
“People recognize this is a big project with the ability to provide a huge economic impact for a region,” Nilsson said.
Nilsson estimated the environmental assessment process will take about three to five years to complete with further steps needed before construction can start.
“There’s no aspect of this process that we’re going through that is expedited in any way,” Nilsson said.
Construction is expected to take about three years with an estimated 28-year operation phase.
Nilsson added the mine is expected to bring over 1,000 jobs during the construction period and about 500 through the mine’s operation.
He said he hopes about 50 per cent of that will be local and regional hires.
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