Berg Copper Project
Berg is Surge Copper Corp.'s proposed open-pit copper and molybdenum mine, about 80 km southwest of Houston, BC, in the Wet'suwet'en Yintah. This site answers questions from its public record.
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- How will the tailings be stored?
- Which Nations intend to take part?
- Where will the mine get its power?
- What would happen to Nanika Lake?
Berg before and after
Ground is NRCan elevation data under on-site satellite imagery; mine shapes come from the company's IPD and PFS. A full-page 3D map holds sources and checks.
Assessment
The End of Mount Ney
Mount Ney is the highest peak in the Tahtsa Ranges. Its rocks formed between about 170 and 50 million years ago. In 28 years of mining, a pit 1.2 kilometres deep would consume its south face, and waste rock up to 430 metres high would bury its slopes and glaciers.
The mine would yield 4.9 billion pounds of copper, with molybdenum, silver and gold, worth C$53.7 billion at the company's own prices.
The mountain would be replaced by a landscape of toxic waste in perpetuity: almost 1.5 billion cubic metres of acid-generating rock and tailings held behind dams.
Sources: PFS, p. 44 (highest peak, 2,470 m); IPD, p. 3-10 (Eocene intrusion, about 50 million years, in Middle Jurassic rock, about 170 million years by the standard time scale); IPD, p. 4-20 (28 years); PFS, p. 211 (pit crest 2,300 m, floor 1,070 m); PFS, p. 226 (dumps up to 430 m, on glaciers); PFS, p. 20 (4,875 million pounds of copper, C$53,700 million revenue); PFS, p. 225 and PFS, p. 265 (642 million m³ of acid-generating rock and 812 million m³ of tailings, stored permanently).
Read by topic
- Mine planPit, mill, conveyors, phases, power line, roads and workforce.
- Tailings and mine wasteTailings and waste facility beside Nanika Lake, and acid rock drainage.
- WaterWater balance, Nanika Lake supply, treatment, discharge and downstream creeks.
- First NationsWet'suwet'en Yintah, each Nation in the IPD, and notices to participate.
- Review and timelineProvincial and federal assessment, substitution, and schedule to 2029.
- Emissions and environmentGreenhouse gases, air, noise, caribou, plants, parks and land use.
- Copper demand and recyclingWorld copper use, forecasts to 2040, recycling, and Berg on that scale.
- What Surge Copper saysSurge Copper's project page, maps, reserve tables and economic estimates.
- DocumentsEvery file in the record, with previews and search within each.
- PhotographsPhotographs of the land around Berg, sent in by the public and checked before they appear.
- Mine in three dimensions3D map of the site before and after, with the filed pages it is built from.
- MapProject, transmission line and surrounding land.
Project as proposed
| Products | Copper and molybdenum, with silver and gold as by-products |
|---|---|
| Operations | 28 years |
| Mill capacity | 120,000 tonnes a day |
| Rock mined over mine life | 3,618 million tonnes: 1,209 Mt of ore and 2,409 Mt of waste |
| Project area | 5,009 hectares |
| Expected output | 4.9 billion lb of copper and 602 million lb of molybdenum |
| Peak workforce | 783, in year 5 |
| Access | About 116 km of forest service roads |
Source: Surge Copper, Initial Project Description, September 2026, p. 1-1, p. 1-3, p. 3-1. These are the company's own figures.
Review status
Berg is in early engagement under BC's Environmental Assessment Act. It also meets the federal Impact Assessment Act's criteria for a designated project. The provincial Environmental Assessment Office (EAO) has written to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada to request substitution, under which one provincial review stands in for both. Source: Initial Project Description, p. 1-3; EAO substitution request letter, September 11, 2026.
Three First Nations and one Wet'suwet'en House have filed notices of intent to participate: Witset First Nation, Wet'suwet'en First Nation, the House of Anaskaski and Skin Tyee First Nation. See First Nations and review timeline.
Documents
Registry filings and Surge Copper's own disclosures are all searchable here. The document browser shows each one with a preview, its date, page count and size, and a search within it.
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