Categories: Base Metals
Topics: General Base Metals

Bravo Mining (TSX-V: BRVO) Lead Director Dr. Nicole Adshead-Bell on Following up a Potentially Game Changing High-Grade Nickel/Copper Discovery at the Luanga (PGM+Au+Ni) Project

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the lead director for Bravo Mining, Dr. Nicole Adshead-Bell. Nikki, it is great to have you back on. How are you today?

Dr. Nicole Adshead-Bell: I'm very well, Gerardo. Thank you very much for having me back on. Is this too much of a good thing? I don't think so.

Gerardo Del Real: No. Listen, let's get right into too much of a good thing, because the last time that you and I spoke on air we talked about Luis's quote, right? He quoted in that news release that he thought that the massive sulfide mineralization that was hit could be potentially game changing. And the reason for that was that we hadn't seen that type of mineralization anywhere else at Luanga. And yesterday we got confirmation that the company has indeed intercepted high grade nickel-copper massive sulfide mineralization. The headline number was 11 meters at 2.04% nickel and 1.23% copper. And mind you, the PGM results are still pending. So first off, congratulations on what looks to me to be a bonafide discovery. And then you, given your background, I want to ask you, potentially this is a game changer for Luanga and for the team at Bravo.

Dr. Nicole Adshead-Bell: Yeah. We somewhat joke about it. Luanga is the gift that keeps on giving. And we're all slightly concerned maybe that we've drunk the Kool-Aid because this is an asset that, honestly, I don't see many assets, not just the quality from a technical perspective, but the quality from the people and the location. And to hit massive sulfide, and to put this into context, based on the approximately 50,000 meters of drilling that was done by Vale in the early 2000s, the average grade in a non NI 42-101 compliant resource they intersected was 0.11% nickel. So this is very material. This is what we call a low- sulfide system, and to intersect massive sulfides with this kind of grade, as you said, it's got a huge amount of potential in terms of a new mineralization style that has previously not been identified at Luanga.

To put that into context, Luanga is seven kilometers of a mineralized envelope. And this drill hole was drilled between two lines that were drilled by Vale that had a 200 meter gap between them. So it was literally a drill hole that was plunked in the middle because we're trying to tighten up the drilling and it was unexpected. Now we think... We had always thought that there was potential for massive sulfide mineralization, there normally is in this kind of system. But to hit it this early on in the piece, and to be absolutely frank, it was hit with not the aim of trying to discover massive sulfide mineralization. It really was infill drilling.

So it is a game changer. Our job now is to basically understand what is controlling it, how big is it? And you would've seen in the press release, that's one of the reasons why we are using downhole EM and some of these geophysical techniques that Chalice used incredibly successfully at Julimar in terms of helping them focus in on understanding where to drill next.

Gerardo Del Real: I love talking with people that are much smarter than I. I understand that you have six drill rigs on site?

Dr. Nicole Adshead-Bell: We have six drill rigs on site. Now we only had one drill rig in this particular area, but because of the magnitude, or the potential magnitude of this discovery, we've already seconded another drill rig to that site. So we've got six rigs in total, two rigs are now focused on this area and drilling above and below it. And also we now have downhole EM geophysical tools on site. We've done the casing, so with this kind of... If you want to do downhole EM, you have to case a drill hole so you can put the equipment down the drill holes, to then be able to get the geophysical signature to better understand the direction in which to drill.

Gerardo Del Real: Prior to this discovery, we spoke last time, and we made the analog to another company that has a billion dollar plus market cap. Bravo currently has a market cap sub $200 million Canadian. And that was before this discovery. So I started digging a bit more into the share structure, and I knew that the board, the management employees owned just over 61%. What I wasn't 100% sure about was whether all of those shares were reporting shares, which is important to me. And so I spoke with a gentleman that has been in the resource space for over 30 years. And he referenced Luis Azevedo, executive chairman and CEO of Bravo, and his holding of just over 50, 51%. And he said, "Listen, with this kind of share structure and all those shares reporting and the asset and the infrastructure and the new discovery now," which we didn't chat about last time, but we did chat about this earlier today, said, "If this doesn't work, I may just walk away from the resource space."

Now, listen, he's biased. He's a shareholder as am I, as are you as is the team. But I wanted to dig in a bit more into that share structure because the way it's set up is really, really appealing to me as a shareholder. I'm not worried about the team all of a sudden deciding to dump cheap paper into the market. And I would love for you to briefly explain why, Nikki.

Dr. Nicole Adshead-Bell: Sure. So a number of us have been in the industry for a very long time. I'm 50 next year. So we've all made mistakes. So we've also all sorts of companies that are out there to... I would say management teams are more focused on mining a market than actually building and advancing a great project. And so what we have is a lot of people understand the business, but are also very, very determined given the quality of this asset and the history of all the team that is involved to take this forward. So when we put the initial financing into the private company, which was board and management and employees, ex-Luis, before Luanga was officially vended into the company, before that agreement was signed, sealed and delivered. Obviously, that's cheaper stock. And the last thing that anybody wants to see is management and team and board who have cheaper paper, then offloading that paper at the first available opportunity.

So we voluntarily included in our subdocument. So it's a contractual obligation that nobody can sell shares for at least two years. There's also a TSX-V regulatory obligation that's on top of that that extends that period for another year. And then we went, "Okay" and we had a vesting schedule. So 20% after six months, 30% after the end of year two, and the remaining 50%... Sorry, 30% after the end of year one and the remaining 50% after the end of year two. And so what that means is if someone decides to leave the company in six months, they have to sell back 80% of their position to the company at the price they paid. So what we are trying to engender here and ensure this is a company that's really aimed and doing things a little bit differently is to show that our interests are very, very aligned with shareholders.

The rest of the owners of the company, we're sizable owners of the company, and that we're taking a very, very long term view here. And then all the directors participated in the IPO. I think you'll usually see with the junior side of things that directors do not participate in the go public financing. Obviously it's a higher cost financing. We still think that that financing price was done at a price that there's a huge amount of embedded value in the company going forward. And then a number of us have also been participating in terms of going into the buying in the market since we've been public. And so really, what we're trying to do here is demonstrate that we put our money where our mouth is, and we're taking a very, very long term view. And speaking of Luis, Luis received his share position in the company for vending in. He had 100% ownership of Luanga.

He had multiple offers on the table. He could have turned around and sold it privately for a substantial amount of money. And so he sold Luanga to Bravo for his share position. And again, it's reportable. He is very, very aligned. So this is a very, very tightly held company. We understand that will come with some challenges in terms of liquidity. So we're very focused on ensuring that we are trying to increase liquidity as much as we can. But again, tightly held share structure, which has also got a lot of positives and a very, very long term view by board and management.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, I've been around slightly less longer, about half the time that the gentleman I was speaking to who mentioned he would walk away if this didn't work. I would not walk away. But I have to say, this is as well structured, well placed, well managed company as I've come across in quite some time. I am an excited shareholder. I can't wait to get the remaining assays. I'm looking forward to seeing what those other six rigs deliver. And then I also understand that you'll be at Beaver Creek alongside Luis in September. So if anybody is out there and you see Nikki or you see Luis and you have any questions for her, him, or myself, I'll be there as well. Please, please reach out. Nikki, anything to add to that?

Dr. Nicole Adshead-Bell: No, no. I look forward to meeting you for the first time in person at Beaver Creek. And a shout out to Jessica and her team. It's a fantastic conference. The best conference in the world with respect to the junior sector. And so we're very, very pleased to be in attendance at it.

Gerardo Del Real: I absolutely love that conference. Looking forward to it. Looking forward to meeting you in person. Nikki, let's chat soon.

Dr. Nicole Adshead-Bell: Sounds great. Thanks a lot, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Thank you.