The Decade Of #Copper Could Be A Bonanza For Braveheart Resources

Summary

• Copper is very strong, it could surpass US$5/lb. this year.
• Chile & Peru dominate copper production, accounting for 40% of last year's mined copper.
• Security of supply, geopolitical & ESG considerations make Canada a great jurisdiction to operate mines.
• Braveheart Resources has three great assets, 2 copper & 1 gold.

With copper one of the hottest metals on the planet, and with no end in sight for its strength, investing in copper juniors makes a lot of sense. While arguments can be made for uranium, lithium, cobalt, nickel, silver, gold, etc., copper has the best long-term fundamentals. Copper assets in Canada & the U.S. are especially attractive given various difficulties / uncertainties from around the world.

For instance, just two countries (Chile & Peru) supply ~40% of the world’s mined copper. Like Kazakhstan for uranium, the DRC for cobalt & China for dominating the refining of many metals — it’s unwise for geopolitical / security of supply & ESG considerations to have all of your eggs in one basket.

I recently spoke at length with the CEO of Braveheart Resources (TSX-V: BHT) / (RIINF), a company with near-term production potential, plus three promising projects, all in Canada. Ian Berzins P.Eng. has assembled strong prospects and an excellent team. Please continue reading to learn more about the Company.

Please give readers the latest snapshot of Braveheart Resources.

Braveheart is a junior miner with two past-producing, advanced exploration / development stage, Canadian mining projects focused on copper, with lesser payables incl. nickel, gold, silver, palladium, platinum & silver.

Both have significant infrastructure; roads, power, water & close proximity to mining communities. We also have a very high-grade gold project (142,000 oz. @ 16.5 g/t)! All three projects are in Canada.

We plan to restart the Bull River mine near Cranbrook B.C. in the 4th qtr. Immediate cash flow is expected from the processing of surface stockpiles of run-of-mine ore. In parallel, the Company plans to advance exploration at our Thierry project.

Please tell readers about Braveheart’s key team members (mgmt. team, board).

Our management team & board have significant experience in engineering, geology, operations, project development, plus senior management experience, including companies such as; Canadian Natural Resources, Suncor Energy, Atlantic Gold, San Gold, Miramar Mining, Thompson Creek Metals, Grande Cache Coal and Fording Coal. The team has managed five gold mines & two copper mines in Canada.

Can you brag a bit about your team’s history of successes?

In May 2018, Braveheart was a $4.0M market cap company with an option to acquire a high-grade gold mine. Today the Company has two significant near-term copper projects and a market cap of $20M.

One director was involved with bringing Atlantic Gold to commercial production and a second director led the Mount Milligan copper & gold mine to commercial production.

Some investors are worried about Braveheart having to raise a lot of equity capital. Can you comment on your need to issue shares over the remainder of the year?

Braveheart needs to raise $5.0 to $6.0M to complete capital infrastructure upgrades. Proceeds will be raised through equity issues, conversion of warrants and/or placing a royalty on one of the properties. There are currently no royalties on any of our projects.

You have three projects. Which is your favorite, and why?

Bull River is our most advanced, our flagship project, with copper, gold & silver payables. It has a minimum 7-year mine life and is 95% built. Alpine is a high-grade gold mine at 16.5 g/t, one of the higher grades in all of B.C., which is known for high grades.

We envision Alpine providing supplemental feed to our Bull River operation. Thierry is the elephant, it could easily be the Company maker. It’s at least three years out, but could be 10x – 15x larger than Bull River. Our favorite opportunity? The first one to reach commercial production!

The Bull River Mine project is a past producer and is high grade at > 2% Copper, but it’s a small resource. How much larger might it get?

We currently have ~6.5 to 7.0 years in our resource. But the deposit is only 350 m below surface, which is relatively shallow. It’s very conceivable that the resource could extend to a depth of over 1,000 m.

Last year we intersected structures 115 m below our lowest workings. This material is not included in the current resource. Yes, the resource is expected to get a lot bigger, but it’s too early to be more specific.

Can you explain, in layperson’s terms, the value of your considerable tax losses?

The tax losses are associated with the individual projects. We have $150M in tax losses at Bull River + $100M at Thierry. Effectively, Braveheart will not be paying out cash taxes for the first 10 years of mining.

Is your team actively pursuing other properties / projects at this time?

We’re always looking for acquisition opportunities. Typically we look in Canada at projects that have past-production, are near existing infrastructure (roads, power & communities), a mineral resource in place, and are undervalued.

An experienced mining team who have built & managed mines can recognize value and the challenges that others might miss or oversimplify.

We’re currently drilling at Bull River and expect to have encouraging results down dip. The resource could easily be expanded by 2x – 3x. Additionally, ore sorting and higher copper prices should allow us to lower our cut-off grade, effectively allowing us to mine lower grade material not included in the current resource.

A scoping study was done for Bull River in 2013. Is that scoping study of any use today? What would the after-tax NPV & IRR look like at a Copper price of $4.25/lb.?

The internal scoping study gave management and the board sufficient confidence to continue with infrastructure upgrades. We’re considering completing a third-party PEA as an expansion to the scoping study.

When we bought the project in 2019 the price of copper was $2.75/lb., so clearly the economics have improved with copper over $4.50/lb. I have to defer this question until a PEA or PFS is completed.

Could the Bull River Mill be retrofitted to process higher value metals like gold?

Yes. In order to process gold from Alpine we would just need to add a gravity circuit at a cost of under $250,000. That would be a relatively simple upgrade to the mill. The gravity circuit would capture ~80% of gravity-recoverable gold.

The Thierry Mine project has a PEA on it with an after-tax IRR of 19%. That’s pretty good, but are there ways to improve the economics when the time comes for a PFS?

Yes. The Thierry project had an after-tax IRR of 19% and a NPV(6%) of C$260M based on a US$ 3.40/lb. Cu price. However, at US$ 4.71/lb., the NPV more than doubles to C$547M.

Economics could be improved by focusing on the near-surface open-pitable portion of the deposit at K1-1, and on the previously developed underground infrastructure, to reduce capital costs.

Braveheart has made good progress reducing its debt, but there’s still some remaining. How much debt do you have? Are the terms onerous?

We currently have C$5M in debt with a senior secured creditor. The interest rate on the debt was recently reduced to 10%. In the past six months, we eliminated C$6.0M of debt through conversion to common shares.

Why should readers consider buying shares of Braveheart Resources vs. one of the other 100+ copper-focused juniors?

Great question. There’s been so much written about the bull market in copper lately that I feel it might not be necessary to point out that demand for copper is going to be very strong for decades to come. And, equally important (for the price of copper) is that global supply is increasingly uncertain.

Bullish price forecasts of $7-$8lb. are exciting, but our projects would thrive at $4-$5/lb. In just the past month or two, both Peru & more recently Chile have had political outcomes that could slow or curtail significant quantities of copper production.

As you mentioned earlier, these two countries account for ~40% of mined copper. Only the best projects in South America will advance to production and only at long-term copper prices above $4/lb.

Having copper projects (and one gold project) in Canada will be extremely important going forward. We think we have very good copper assets in B.C. & Ontario. And, our gold project in B.C, has a blockbuster grade of 16.5 g/t.

Thank you Ian. Braveheart seems to be in the right place at the right time with the right team. I look forward to your progress this year and next.

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At the time this article was posted, Braveheart Resources was an advertiser on [ER] and Peter Epstein owned shares in the Company.

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