Stories told (and sold) in Noosa point towards Diggers

As places go, Noosa pretty much sells itself.

Sun-drenched beaches. A beautiful national park. A lively and friendly yet chilled main strip. Warm weather most of the year round. The odd celebrity-sighting, too.

It was against this lovely and relaxing backdrop that mining companies received some sobering yet sound advice last month: improve the way they tell (and sell) their stories or risk disappearing without a trace.

The annual Noosa Mining and Exploration Investment Conference is always a unique and entertaining event and July’s edition was bigger and better than ever.

More than 1000 delegates gathered to see 65 presentations from miners big and small and to hear from key sector analysts. One of them, Exploration Insights analyst and co-editor Brent Cook, shared an American lesson that is equally applicable to the Australian mining scene.

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The Noosa Mining and Exploration Investor Conference attracted a record number of delegates – Aeris Resources was one of the companies to take advantage of the coveted places at the conference.

Gone are the days, Cook said, where a miner might expect a broker to sprinkle some kind of magic dust on the flawed narrative of their project (or even a flawed project) and turn it into a market success.

In a world where only one in a thousand prospects succeeds, Cook suggested there would be 10 low-grade deposits found through exploration for every one high-grade deposit.

And that’s before you take stock of a collection of factors that add to the complexity of the kinds of projects we are likely to see going forward:

• Deep and covered deposits;
• Projects with higher drilling costs;
• Metallurgical challenges;
• Strip and waste issues;
• Water issues;
• Larger areas being disturbed;
• More complicated permitting; and
• Higher capex required.

The message Cook presented was clear: miners of all shapes and sizes need to be able to sell their own stories like never before.

This starts when presenting your prospects to brokers. If you can’t effectively explain and demonstrate why your project is worth investing in ahead of others, you’re dead in the water.

Nobody knows your project’s strengths like you do. Nobody would better know its weaknesses. Nobody is better placed to knit together the tale of its progress and show why it warrants investment.

You just have to know how to do that.

Being able to tell and sell your story to a broker is only the beginning. An event like Noosa, with a crowd almost entirely made up of investors, demonstrates the value in being able to promote your project direct to the people who will put their money behind it.

White Rock Minerals was one of the 65 companies presenting at the Noosa Mining and Exploration Investor Conference.

Of course, that promotion goes well beyond events.

It’s a 24/7, 365-days-a-year opportunity that should involve publishing news and milestones on your company website and social media platforms and using email newsletters to keep your followers up-to-date about your journey.

You can be sure that equation – and some related questions – will be on plenty of people’s minds in Kalgoorlie-Boulder at the annual Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum.

So ask yourself:

• Am I doing my project justice with my promotional collateral?
• Does my website and its content match the quality of the prospects I’m trying to tell the market about?
• Are my biggest competitors beating me to the punch on social media?
• Am I selling myself short by not shooting video?
• And, most importantly, can I demonstrate that I have thought about all the risks associated with my projects or mines and that I have strategies to deal with these?

The old saying goes that you can’t polish the proverbial. As Cook made very clear to his audience in Noosa, the miner-broker equivalent of that scenario is also totally off the cards.

Know your story. Own your story. Tell your story.

It’s a non-negotiable.

Cannings Purple’s market-leading Investor Relations team will be on the ground in Kalgoorlie-Boulder for the full three days of Diggers and Dealers.

Peta Baldwin is Cannings Purple’s State Director in Queensland and an expert in investor relations and the resources industry. She has worked in in-house roles at Mount Isa Mines, Alcoa and most recently AngloGold Ashanti. Contact Peta

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