Tony Baressi is the President and Director for Triumph Gold Corp and we touched base with him to find out about his previous experiences at Roundup and what he finds valuable. We delve into the difficulties and successes of financing at Roundup. Read on…
Tell us about your previous experience at AME Roundup and what you found most valuable.
I have been attending AME Roundup annually since 2002, through all stages of my career as a geologist and the conference has always been an evolving, fun, and enriching experience. One of my first times attending Roundup, while standing beside a poster I coauthored highlighting new geological mapping near Terrace, an older gentleman spent a long time looking at the poster. Once we began talking, I was delighted, and slightly anxious, to discover that he had made the first geological map of the same area back in the early 80’s. More recently, after attending a presentation at Roundup by a BC Geological Survey geologist, I immediately staked the ground that he had been describing, and Triumph Gold has now optioned that property to Rio Tinto. From these examples it is clear that the technical/geological aspects of AME Roundup have been valuable to me, but access to investors, service providers and networking opportunities have been equally important.
What are the difficulties and successes of financing at Roundup?
Roundup takes place during a favorable time to finance because it is after the tax-loss selling season when share prices are typically rebounding, often giving a sense of market optimism. The timing of the conference is also favorable because companies that raise money during or shortly after Roundup have plenty of time (at least in the northern hemisphere) to design and execute well-planned exploration programs, with opportunity to round up (pun intended) good field crews and contractors. A challenge to financing at Roundup can be that it is often too early in the year to present a well-developed plan for the upcoming exploration season. Much of the geological interpretation and data-crunching that leads to a robust or easily marketable exploration program is conducted during the winter and is not quite complete during Roundup.
Tell us about your plans at Roundup this year and where investors should go to maximize their Roundup experience.
This year Triumph Gold was selected to exhibit drill core from our Freegold Mountain property at the Roundup Core Shack. This is a fantastic opportunity to present real evidence of our recent exploration successes. Based on our past participation at Roundup Core Shacks, we expect this one to facilitate meaningful engagement with investors, to help garner interest from major mining companies, and to provide a venue for scientific leaders from universities, government and industry to observe our core and offer us invaluable feedback. Even for non-geologically inclined investors, visiting the core shack can be a valuable experience; it is where you can meet some of the people who are often behind the scenes, the people who really make things tick for many companies, and who you might want to meet before making an investment. Don’t forget to swing by to see Triumph’s core while you’re there!
Can you give any advice on how companies can best leverage the access to investors at Roundup?
There are so many facets to the Roundup experience that it is easy to amplify investors exposure to your project through multiple encounters with your brand or story, not just through your own booth/core-shack/presentation, but also at other venues where your project or district is being highlighted. Discuss your project with government or corporate partners who have their own booths or are giving presentations and encourage them to mention your project, then suggest to investors that they check out those booths or presentations. It makes a big impact when attention is drawn to the same project or company through multiple sources over just a few days – Roundup is just big enough, and just small enough, for this to be effective.
