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Peartree’s Ron Bernbaum on how Charitable Flow-Through Financings Connects Donors, Investors, and Mining Companies for Canada’s Exploration Capital

In an insightful interview at PDAC 2024, Critical Minerals Institute (CMI) Director Peter Clausi and PearTree Financial‘s CEO Ron Bernbaum discussed the pivotal role and challenges of flow-through financing in Canada’s mining sector. Bernbaum highlighted that flow-through financing is instrumental for junior mining companies, facilitating over 90% of exploration investment. This model supports critical exploration activities such as drilling and First Nations engagement, with PearTree playing a significant role by facilitating over $500 million annually in Flow-Through Share Financings across more than 600 transactions.

Bernbaum expressed concern over recent tax changes, particularly the modifications in the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) rules, which could potentially reduce exploration capital by approximately one-third. Despite these challenges, the introduction of the Critical Mineral Exploration Tax Credit in 2022, which led to $350 million of investment, demonstrates the federal government’s recognition of the sector’s importance. However, Bernbaum underscored the need for sustainability in these incentives amidst tax policy changes.

Amidst regulatory challenges, Bernbaum remains hopeful for positive amendments to tax regulations and lauds provinces like Quebec for their additional support through tax incentives. He stressed the complexity and the essential nature of flow-through financing in leveraging government policies and tax incentives to support mining exploration. This system has facilitated significant investments in the mining sector, demonstrating the interplay between government initiatives and the industry’s funding mechanisms. PearTree’s unique position, offering Charity Flow-Through Financings, connects donors, investors, and mining companies, maximizing benefits for all parties involved and ensuring the continued flow of essential exploration capital in Canada’s mining industry.

To access the complete interview, click here

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Why Your Press Release Sucks

…but doesn’t have to.

 

There is not a lot of love in the market these days. The junior mining sector has been suffering for a decade in spite of increasing commodity prices, and for a while cannabis and cryptocurrency took all the oxygen and money out of the room leaving solid exploration properties and valid businesses gasping for breath. While it is unrealistic for any one company to buck the macro trends and investment cycles, there are still things they can do to help build their story and investment audience, starting with their press releases.

As someone who reads – and has written – hundreds if not thousands of press releases, I see the daily disappointment of news falling flat in the market. I have been in the corner office with management watching the market at the opening bell in anticipation on the day big news is released. Typically the discussion goes like this:

President: “How much of a share price bump are we going to get with today’s news? 10%? 15%?”
CFO: “At least. Maybe 20%. It’s great news.”

Markets open, news is released, trade volumes go up and they watch in disbelief as their stock price inches down. They have forgotten the old adage, “Buy on rumor, sell on news.”

They also forget that investors and analysts are almost always disappointed by news. If a company finds a gold nugget half a kilometre across, there will always be someone on a bullboard who complains that it wasn’t a full kilometre long. Good press releases rarely create more than a blip on a chart, but solid, well-written press releases build on each other and tell a clear story over time and build attention and confidence.

Ignoring those who will never be pleased, how do you write a press release that encourages confidence in your company and makes shareholders want to keep (and add to) their holdings?

Start with a headline. Actually, end with your headline. It will be the thing that convinces a busy reader or investor to keep reading, otherwise they will click away and never see. As an editor and writer of headlines for others, you often don’t come up with the headline that both sums up your news and grabs your reader until you have finished the press release or story, so write your headline last. Headlines need to use key words that investors and online indexers look for. If you are a gold company, the word “gold” had better be in your headline. But don’t put in the kitchen sink. Headlines should be short and punchy while conveying the information that will make the reader want to keep reading.

Not enough companies start their press releases with short, bulleted highlights. With the vast amounts of information flying at investors, they have no patience to hunt for the essential points of a press release. You have to spoon feed them. This isn’t condescending – it’s respecting people’s time.

Highlights should be followed by a quote from a company representative. Investors need to know there is a person behind the company’s news. Quotes from a president or lead geologist / technologist is an opportunity to explain why the news is important before you get into detailed facts and figures. It is a chance to convey excitement and interpret the news in plain English for readers even if they don’t read any further, which they often don’t.

Companies often forget the reader when writing a press release. Too often presidents or IR people choose to emphasize something in a press release that they personally think is important. Sometimes what you care the most about is something the market couldn’t care less about. Know your audience and what drives their investing decisions.

There is a compliance aspect to press releases and the information companies are required to make public in a full and timely manner, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work hard to make them accessible to the average reader. You are not writing for geologists, industry insiders or technologists. Companies should avoid waxing poetic about “allowing node runners to push towards a fully decentralized infrastructure to improve the Web3 ecosystem without taking away any roles of masternodes”, or explain “mineralization is hosted in the ultramafic units associated with secondary splay structures as illustrated by the important gold districts that occur worldwide related to geological events of Paleoproterozoic age.”

You can almost hear the clicking on sell orders.

One CEO I worked with loved to use the word “hence” in press releases. Just don’t.

Technical details belong at the end. They may be needed for compliance or to flesh out the story for people in the industry, but don’t lead with them. It is a guaranteed way to turn off most readers.

There was a time when simply publishing a press release through one of the handful of news dissemination services was enough to get the message out. Not anymore. The investor information landscape is cluttered with data, and social media can still be the Wild West when it comes to accuracy.

A press release is now the starting point, not the end point of getting news out. News no matter how good needs to be amplified and brought to the attention of an audience overwhelmed with information. Your Twitter audience may be different from your Facebook audience which may be different than your subscribed email list audience. At one time video was expensive and time-consuming, but now many CEOs routinely schedule post-press release Zoom and video interviews to reach their audience of investors and analysts.

Picking the right – and compliant – partner for news dissemination and amplification has never been more important. The point is that no one thing works in this multi-channel, self-directed investor universe.

It all starts with a well-written press release, but always remember that press releases are not their own reward.




TRU Precious Metals, (Gold), is leveraged for drilling success

Anyone who has read my previous articles knows that when it comes to junior mining companies I’m a big fan of the catalyst provided by the drill bit. Another thing I like is closeology, so I get even more interested when a company is drilling holes on a trend between two existing deposits. Not that there is anything scientific about this, nor does it guarantee there will be any success. Nevertheless, you have to start somewhere, so these are some of the screening tools I use to narrow down the field of mining companies I want to have a look at.

Based on that, it should come as no surprise that today we are going to look at a company that is about to do exactly what I’ve described above. TRU Precious Metals Corp. (TSXV: TRU |OTCQB: TRUIF) has assembled a portfolio of gold exploration properties in the Central Newfoundland Gold Belt, in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. InvestorIntel readers may be scratching their heads thinking that I just wrote about a Newfoundland gold play, and you’d be correct. This is one of the most exciting gold exploration districts in the world right now, so why not double down on the fun. I look particularly at smaller cap names that have a lot more leverage from good news, both theirs and anyone’s else in the neighborhood.

TRU spent the first half of 2021 focused on drilling its Twilite Gold Project, completing 12 holes for a total of 2,577 meters at the Fort Knox Gold Zone. All assays have been completed and highlights include 11.5 metres (m) with 1.03 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold (Au) in hole TL-21-17, 10.5 m with 1.07 g/t Au in hole TL-21-16, 6.0 m grading 1.06 g/t Au in drill hole TL-21-18, 3.0 m grading 0.85 g/t Au in drill hole TL-21-20, and the intersection of 1.00 g/t au over 2 m in borehole TL-21-27. The drill program successfully extended the known Fort Knox gold zone along strike and down dip and provided valuable geological information to help vector future drill programs in extending the zone. The gold zone remains open to the northwest beyond hole TL-21-17, where the zone is widening, and the gold grades are improving both at depth and along trend in the northwest direction.

The reason TRU drilled Twilite first was because the option agreement to purchase the flagship Golden Rose project closed on May 11th of this year. The Company has done three subsequent transactions to further consolidate the area, adding 62 km2 of contiguous mineral claims in June, another 45 claim covering 1,125 hectares located along trend from the 550m long South Wood Lake Gold Zone in early July, and another deal for 51 contiguous claims adding 12.75 km2 in mid July. Not surprisingly they needed a little time to figure out where to prioritize the 5,000m drill program announced on Tuesday.

Source: TRU Precious Metals Corp. website

As you can partially see from the illustration above Golden Rose is a regional-scale land package covering 215 km2, including approximately 45 km of strike length along the deposit-bearing Cape Ray -Valentine Lake structural corridor between Marathon Gold Corp.’s Valentine Gold Project to the northeast, and Matador Mining Ltd.’s Cape Ray Gold Project to the southwest. Historical drill intercepts on TRU’s property include 1.37 g/t Au over 26.3 m, 2.15 g/t Au over 12.6 m, and 19.8 g/t Au over 1.5 m, with visible gold observed. New drilling will focus primarily on target delineation and expansion of known gold mineralization at the Woods Lake Gold Zone and will include a mix of confirmatory/twin holes, infill/delineation holes, and scout holes. The program will also see drilling carried out at the King George IV claims, on which the Company has panned visible gold at the surface, and which has never been previously drilled.

But perhaps the most compelling thing about TRU Precious Metals, right now, is the valuation. At the end of June (their Q2 results), the Company had $6.5 million in cash and no debt. All the properties that were added at Golden Rose cost them approximately $25,000 in cash with the rest of the transactions consisting of shares or future expenditures and the Twilite drilling program was basically complete, so most of that cash should still be available. There are currently 67 million shares outstanding making the market cap $10 million based on yesterday’s closing price of $0.15. That means the market is currently valuing TRU’s 34,000+ hectares (84,000 acres) of land at roughly $3.5 million (after you deduct the value of the cash). Seems to me there is some pretty good leverage here, if there is a good drill result or two.