The decade of #Copper could be a Bonanza for Braveheart Resources

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., I believe copper has the best long-term fundamentals. Projects in Canada & the U.S. are especially attractive, given widespread uncertainties around the world.

Just two countries (Chile & Peru) supply ~40% of the world’s mined copper. Like Kazakhstan for uranium, the DRC for cobalt & China for REEs — 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 copper-heavy 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. 

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

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

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

Our management team & board have significant expertise in engineering, geology, operations, project development, plus senior mgmt. experience at a range of companies including; 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, and 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 of our directors was involved in 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 a combination of equity raises, conversion of warrants and possibly placing a royalty on one of our projects.

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

Bull River is our most advanced, it’s our flagship project, with copper, gold & silver payables. It has a minimum 7-year mine life and is 95% built. Alpine is a small, high-grade, past-producing gold mine with a 16.5 g/t resource, 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 a 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 could it get? 

We currently have ~6.5 to 7.0 years worth of ore 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 > 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 Braveheart’s considerable tax losses? 

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

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

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

An experienced mining team like our’s, 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 resources’ cut-off grade, effectively allowing us to mine lower grade material.

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.? 

That internal scoping study gives 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 Bull River in 2019, the price of copper was ~US$ 2.75/lb., so clearly the economics have improved with copper over US$ 4.50/lb. I’ll 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. It 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 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. 

The economics could be improved further by focusing on the near-surface, open-pitable portion of the deposit at K1-1, and on the previously developed underground infrastructure in order 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 successfully eliminated C$ 6M of our debt by converting it into 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 US$ 7-$8lb. are exciting, but our projects would thrive at US$ 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.

Peter, 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 with long-term copper prices above $4/lb., perhaps only above $5/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.

Disclosures / Disclaimers: The content of this article is for information only. Readers fully understand and agree that nothing contained herein, written by Peter Epstein of Epstein Research [ER], (together, [ER]) about Braveheart Resources, including but not limited to, commentary, opinions, views, assumptions, reported facts, calculations, etc. is not to be considered implicit or explicit investment advice. Nothing contained herein is a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any security. [ER] is not responsible under any circumstances for investment actions taken by the reader. [ER] has never been, and is not currently, a registered or licensed financial advisor or broker/dealer, investment advisor, stockbroker, trader, money manager, compliance or legal officer, and does not perform market making activities. [ER] is not directly employed by any company, group, organization, party or person. The shares of Braveheart Resources are highly speculative, not suitable for all investors. Readers understand and agree that investments in small cap stocks can result in a 100% loss of invested funds. It is assumed and agreed upon by readers that they will consult with their own licensed or registered financial advisors before making any investment decisions.

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