Categories: Base Metals / Precious Metals
Topics: General Base Metals / General Precious Metals

Bravo Mining (TSX-V: BRVO)(OTC: BRVMF) President Simom Mottram on Exceptional Trenching Results at Flagship Luanga PGM+Au Project, Brazil, Ahead of Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president of Bravo Mining, once again, Mr. Simon Mottram. Simon, you're live from the field. You're onsite. You just had some amazing news. Again, congratulations. How are you?

Simon Mottram: I'm great, thanks, Gerardo. And it's good to be with you again.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, let's get right into it. You just trenched a 175-meter zone of oxide-PGMs plus gold mineralization at Luanga. 

I want to provide context. Infrastructure at Luanga is top-notch. Permitting this — whoever decides to permit it, if it's bought out, which is what I believe will happen in due time — is going to be relatively straightforward. The exploration upside is the part that everyone had questions about. And that is looking to be not just substantial and significant but game-changing.

And now, you're trenching the entire 8.1 km strike length of Luanga and really adding, as we talked a bit off-air, meat on that bone. Can you provide the context on today's release and kind of where you see things going?

Simon Mottram: Sure, Gerardo, no problem. Look, I think for me, personally, I think the context, or the salient points of contextualizing those results are this: If you look at those cross-sections and you see the interpretation of the orebody and the fresh rock coming up to surface, and you would normally just go, ‘Okay, I'm just going to draw some straight lines that come up to surface.’ It's an interpretation.

But what's radically changing here is that, when you trench it across the surface, and, again, the important factor here is you are trenching perpendicular to the strike, so you're going across the strike. So you're on the section, you're staying with the section, and you're going across the orebody from, let's say, north-to-south, if you like, across the strike of the orebody. So you're seeing what is the true extent in that direction.

And where you originally thought, ‘Yeah, we're going to interpret this up to the top of the ridge, and, on top of the ridge, there's going to be oxide outcropping.’ You're now looking at that and going, ‘No, actually, there is a significant blanket of oxide that extends all the way down that side of the ridge and all the way down the other side of the ridge.’ And then below it, there's, if you like, a mushroom style to the oxide. 

The oxide comes out of the fresh rock where it's well-defined in the fresh rock, and then it gets into the oxide — and it's particularly the saprolite. And once it gets into that saprolite, you see how it basically blows out, and you have that typical saprolitic dispersion. It's almost like a mushroom cloud sitting on top of the orebody.

So, again, you're seeing, ‘Okay, there's actually a lot more volume potential here than was originally interpreted.’ Because without the data from the trenching, you're just drawing straight lines up to surface, going, ‘Here is the interpretation coming up to surface. We know that the orebody outcrops on surface because we can go up there and stand on it anywhere along that 8.1 kilometers.’

But now, we actually see that the oxide has a significant halo up on surface. Not only does it extend down both sides of the ridge but it actually blows out like the cap of a mushroom. And then, that relates to dispersion that you'd typically see in tropical environments, and, obviously, we're up in the tropics of Brazil. 

The rainy season is approaching in this neck of the woods, and you see that typical tropical weathering profile; the dispersion that you get. And then, with that comes supergene enrichment.

So, again, when you see the intersections, you're going, ‘Okay, these guys have got a drill hole here.’ Let's just say, for example, it's 30 meters of two grams [per tonne]. And then, you look at the trench that's 20 meters above that, and you go, ‘Well, hang on, the trench is 70 meters wide. The trench has an intersection of 70 meters wide. How does that work?’ 

And it's like, ‘Yeah, because in the oxide, it's dispersed, and then it's spread out down the hill. And with the trenching, you can now see what the true extent of that is.’ And I'm not going to say its width or its thickness because it's not really either; it is the extent of the oxide blanket that’s draped over the top of the orebody.

And then, on top of that, you look at the grade, and you go, ‘Wow, look at the grades!’ The grade is significantly higher than the drill hole that's down below it in the fresh rock. So, I think that, from an oxide potential, that bodes extremely well for volumetric growth in the pending MRE — Mineral Resource Estimate — that's coming next month. But it also bodes well for the grade.

And I think, again, it comes back to what you often say to me is that there's optionality. We knew there's X-million tonnes in the historical resource from however many years ago that Vale did. What is that resource going to look like when Bravo does its first resource? And I think it's pretty clear to see that it's going to be significantly different. But not just that, there's the potential for the grade. The grade, I think, is going to be the other one to keep an eye on.

And obviously, when we put out our maiden resource estimate, you're going to see grade, tonnes, oxide… grade, tonnes, saprolite… grade, tonnes, fresh rock. And you'll see that level of detail. And then, you can start asking the questions, ‘Well, hang on, what are you going to do with that stuff? We just assumed you're going to build a fresh rock plant. And that's going to be, let's say, capitalized pre-strip.’

Well, it's like, ‘But hang on, couldn't you just convert that into ore?’ And you just need to process that the way it gets processed in other plants around the world. And there are examples out there. It's not new. It's old, ancient technology. It's been done; it's being done right now. 

There are plants and mines operating in South Africa, and you look at it and you say, ‘Well, this one's operating. They're doing oxide. They're doing oxide, and then they're going to do fresh rock. This mine over here is doing nothing but oxide.’ So again, I think you look at those results; those results are, essentially, if you like, a prelude to what's coming. And then you go, ‘Well, hang on. The maiden Mineral Resource Estimate… that's just around the corner now.’ 

We've gone through the whole year, and we've seen endless amounts of great results in the drilling. And now, we're going to see how that translates into the maiden mineral resource. And better yet, you are actually going to be able to compare that to the historical resource that's out there in the public domain, which was the basis of the purchase of the project in the first place. Let's see how those two compare.

But going back to trenching and oxide and the relevance, after that, you're going to see the maiden results: the maiden results in fresh rock; the maiden results in oxide. And it's like, ‘Well, hang on.’ Again, it's like, ‘There's another option here. You could mine this stuff and process it and make X amount of money out of it at a pretty cheap rate. Free dig; it's oxide. It's going to be easy to mine. It's going to be cheap to mine. It's going to be cheap to process. What can you do with it? What do the maiden results look like?’

So, I think, in the next months or so, you're going to see all of that information flowing through. Obviously, the Mineral Resource Estimate is literally just around the corner. That's getting to the interesting part. And I have no doubt that people are going to be happy. That's my personal feeling. It's going to be good, and you'll see how it all comes together.

And I think it just comes back to what you said so many times to me in the past… it's about our optionality. It's like, ‘Well, you could do this… you could do this… you could do this.’ But in the end, where do you want to get to? Well, you want to get to the big mine. How you do it and in what steps do you do it? Well, those spaces are yet to be colored in.

I think shareholders will be happy that they can see a clear pathway through that. They can see that we deliver; we say we're going to do this and we get it done. The mineral resource is going to be exactly the same. It's going to be on-time. You're going to see it. I don't think anyone's going to be unhappy, is my gut feeling, and all of those squares will get colored in and it'll all line up. And you'll see what the options are.

But at the end of the day, the one thing that's never going to change is the final option. The final stage is, where do we get to the big mine, and is it starting at 5 million or 10 million… and is it ending at 20 million tonnes per annum?

Well, that'll be based largely on how big is the resource and how big could the resource be. You show me the maiden resource, and then I will go back and look at the deeper drilling and try and imagine where it could go next.

Gerardo Del Real: Simon, you sound like a guy that's done this a few times before and monetized assets a few times to the tune of billions of dollars. And I know the stock has pulled back here recently, which is why I reached out.

Look, I'm a biased shareholder. I think it's an incredible opportunity at C$3.35 where it trades right now. Frankly, I think at C$5, I think it's an incredible opportunity because I don't see Luanga going or selling for anything less than C$10 to C$15 a share. And some of that will depend on the overall markets; some of that's going to depend on the exploration upside. 

We haven't yet even talked about the potential for the nickel sulfide discovery really blowing this thing out. We can leave that alone for the time being because, again, as we talked off-air, there's enough meat on the bone right now where we can get to that in due course.

But again, you've done this multiple times. This is a team that knows how to monetize assets. The asset is a phenomenal one. You've been surprised to the upside. And you tend to be rather conservative in the time that I've known you, Simon. So, I am excited as a shareholder. 

I wanted to get an update out with a more technical take on what the Bravo team is doing, what comes next, what the catalysts are and what you're looking for. And it's clear to me, it's a maiden resource estimate. It's filling in the squares, coloring them in as you said, proving up the big mine. And then, let's see what other surprises we get. Is that accurate?

Simon Mottram: I think that's a fair enough summary. And I don't disagree with anything you've said. I think, in all fairness, we try not to be overly optimistic, especially on the public side. I mean, at the end of the day, you want to under-promise and over-deliver. That's sort of the way I was brought up in the system.

And again, in fairness to everyone on the team, I think this team has an incredible depth of experience. I mean, you look across our board of directors and you're looking at a whole group of guys who have 30 to 40 years of experience. They've worked in continents all over the world, and especially in PGEs. I mean, take a guy like Stuart Comline. He's worked all over South Africa.

There's guys who have long, long track records of success in monetizing projects. Tony Polglase, for example, has built mines all over the world. Building mines is what this team does, and I think it's not likely to be any different. 

We came together here from the previous company, which was a raging success in the end. It’s the same thing. We came here, we made a discovery, we built. We were basically the first foreign company, if you like, to come into the carriage house and build an operating mine. And then, we started building the second one. And of course, the company was taken over, as you know. 

So I think, to be fair, there is a mountain of experience here. And I'm sure that some of my peers in this company would be appreciative of me mentioning it because there are greater men than me in this company, for sure. It's a stellar thing.

And I think everything else you said is likely to ring true. The mineral resource, definitely, is well on its way. I think it's going to be on time. I think it's going to be good, and the information will continue to flow. You'll see, ‘Okay, what are the options?’ Keep detailing out these options.

Gerardo Del Real: I'm looking forward to it, Simon. Again, congrats on spectacular work. Again, I love the methodical way in which you're approaching this. And the market will rerate it when the market rerates it. Heck of an opportunity for subscribers and for listeners out there.

Looking forward to chatting soon. Really looking forward to getting a peek at that maiden resource estimate, or the Mineral Resource Estimate, and taking a peek at it, and then starting to wrap our head around the numbers and just how profitable this is going to be for someone one day.

Simon Mottram: Absolutely, and I'm looking forward to it too. I'm looking forward to getting everyone's opinion on what everyone thinks of it. And obviously, it helps me. Especially yourself, Gerardo; I'd be very keen to get your thoughts on it once it's out there.

Gerardo Del Real: Always a pleasure, sir. I'll let you get back to it. I know there’s a lot going on. Can't wait to chat again.

Simon Mottram: I'm sure we'll chat again soon. Maybe the next conversation will be post-MRE. So, let's see. But it's been a pleasure as always… and good to hear from you.

Gerardo Del Real: Thank you, Simon. Appreciate you.

Simon Mottram: Okay. Cheers, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Cheers.