Investors Are Looking at 10 Mining Stories. Why Should They Pick Yours?

If you were to give advice on storytelling to an early-stage exploration company, what do investors usually overlook when they evaluate young mining companies?

What makes sense to emphasize in your story?

We've always tried to balance our storytelling with a healthy level of technical data versus just looking at the blue-sky aspects of what the potential could be.

From my perspective, I've always been more interested in telling a story that technically might not be as easy to understand.

But it's my job to take that technical component and bring it down to a level that the average investor can hear, understand and comprehend why that is a differentiator from other early-stage exploration projects.

It works, in my humble opinion.

That's an important aspect of storytelling: understanding the empirical data, the importance of that data, how it stacks up, and telling that story in a concise way that allows the average investor to get it.

That makes or breaks a story, in my humble opinion.

But you also have to have the wherewithal within your storytelling to answer the really difficult questions from a technical individual who might sit there and say, "That doesn't make sense to me. Why is it A, B or D instead of something else?"

Every time I speak and tell a story about Oreterra, I expect to be telling that story to someone who's learning as we go.

I think that's a positive approach.

I can't expect an average investor to understand what induced polarization means.

So I have to be able to articulate that IP story in a way that resonates and makes sense to the average investor.

But if you do understand it, then I can get a little bit more technical about what higher IP values mean, what impact that could have on the potential sulphide content of the rock, and why that's important.

These are aspects that I think are often lacking in blue-sky storytelling.

I sit there and ask these more technical questions, and oftentimes I'm not able to get answers that satisfy me as an investor.

So I think it's important that anyone telling a story in this market understands that the average knowledge base is increasing.

You'd better be prepared to answer tougher questions.

Because the average investor right now is looking at 10 stories, not one.

And how are you going to differentiate yourself as the one out of those 10 or 20?

It's by being able to articulate a story effectively, take some of the complication out of it, and differentiate yourself.

That's Communications 101, but we're not great communicators. We typically have not been.

I also say, "My cell phone number is on the bottom of every press release. Call me."

That's always been my approach.

You've invested your dollars into this company that I'm supposed to run. I should be able to answer your question at any time.

You call me. You send me an email.

And that's not always the way operations are run.

There's an info@ account, there's a voicemail, and there are so many stories that I've seen where I'm just like, "I can't invest because I don't think that you understand what you're asking us to invest in."

What do you think today in mining is a successful exit?

Is it actually building a mine? Is it getting acquired?

If you're investing in a major mining company, you're looking for a dividend. You're looking for a different structure.

You hope to see appreciation in the value of your shares, but you're also looking at it from an income perspective.

If you're investing your $50,000 or $100,000 into a private placement of an exploration company, your risk tolerance is at 100%.

And you're hoping that your investment is a 10x.

That's what your goal is.

And you're investing in 10 of them, hoping that one of them becomes a 10x or a 20x, or two of them, because certainly we're not all going to be successful.

So the reality is that, personally, I think a successful outcome is capital appreciation.

Your share price has to go up.

And in an exploration company, there are more buyers and sellers. It's binary, right?

Yeah.

And it's because we're telling a story that's resonating.

We're telling a story that's exciting, there are results backing it, and it's real.

It's not just a blue-sky, "Come invest with us because we might do something."

We're providing a technical reason for investors to come and get involved.

And that's what I expect when I invest my money.

I think it's a perfect point to finish our conversation. Thank you so much.

Thank you for your time and for your insights. I think it was super interesting, and I hope you'll have awesome results this summer.