Thunderstruck Resources’ Bryce Bradley: This Has to be a Win

At Mines and Money last week, attendees were treated to a lively pitch battle between American CuMo Mining (TSXV:MLY), Sphinx Resources (TSXV:SFX) and Thunderstruck Resources (TSXV:AWE).

After being grilled by a panel of judges, Bryce Bradley, CEO of Thunderstruck, was voted the winner.

Speaking to the Investing News Network (INN) after the event, she commented, “it was actually really exciting — I had three minutes to pitch to the audience and to four judges, and then they pummeled us and judged me for another 10 minutes … then they voted individually on who they would give theoretically a million-dollar investment to.”

Thunderstruck has four main assets in Fiji, and the company’s exploration season just kicked off. “This is our first real season since permitting and paying for them 100 percent,” said Bradley. 

She also touched on why she likes Fiji as a mining jurisdiction, and why she is determined to make Thunderstruck a success. “This is my first company that I’ve been running, [which] means that it has to work … this will be my first win,” Bradley said. 

Listen to the interview above for more insight from Bradley on Thunderstruck and its assets. You can also read the transcript below.

INN: We’re here at Mines and Money, and you actually just participated in a pitch battle with Sphinx Resources and American CuMo Mining. Can you tell me how it went for you?

BB: I won, so that I think is the most important fact that we can take away from this. But it was actually really exciting — I had three minutes to pitch to the audience and to four judges, and then they pummeled us and judged me for another 10 minutes and hit me with hard questions. [They] did the same with the other two companies, and then they voted individually on who they would give theoretically a million-dollar investment to, and it happened to be me.

So it ended up being very, very good. What I won was a free exhibit and a speaking engagement at the London Mines and Money, which is at the end of November. I wasn’t planning to go because it’s very expensive, but now i’m definitely going to reconsider.

INN: That’s great, it was very intense. For those who don’t know, can you give me a quick reminder about your properties and the news surrounding them right now.

BB: We have 178 square kilometers of four main assets, high-grade zinc, copper and gold assets in Fiji, and we just commenced our exploration season about a couple weeks ago, [it] generally runs from May through November. We have two crews on the ground working on our — we have a copper porphyry, a gold asset and two high-grade zinc-copper VMS assets.

Anglo American (LSE:AAL) worked on them in the late 70s, returned grades of 12 percent zinc and 2 percent copper. We have all of their data, and so we’re using that data right now to get back on the land. This is our first real season since permitting and paying for them 100 percent, where we have all four of these under our control. We have crews on the ground building roads to the gold asset and to the copper porphyry, doing some mapping, trenching, surface geochemical work and [an] IP program. And then hopefully some drilling later on in the season once they get the drill targets; we need to twin stuff and just see what we have.

INN: There were lots of good questions that came up at the pitch battle. I really liked your answer about jurisdiction — “why Fiji?” Could you expand on that?

BB: Yes, no problem. A lot of people ask me … why would you pick Fiji, and the answer is really I didn’t pick it, it picked us. We were looking at lots of different commodities around the world, and because Fiji is so remote it hasn’t been picked over like other countries like Canada and the US, countries that are easier to get to.

However, it has been mining for almost a hundred years, so it has all of the good stuff like the infrastructure … and mining-friendly government, they know how this works, they adhere to British mining law, so they’ve got everything organized. And they have people that know how to work in mining, they’ve been doing it for a hundred years. But yet it hasn’t been overexplored. We came across … spectacular assets, the majors [have been] in there in the past 50 years, as I mentioned, Anglo. Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) is in the country now, Mitsubishi’s (TSE:7211) in the country, there’s a lot of … majors, but there’s still a lot to be had, so we got to pick this up for a very, very cheap price.

INN: You also spoke a little bit about your background — why you really want to make this company work and how you’re doing that.

BB: I started out marketing mining companies, I’m not a geologist. But through that process, working in various capacities as investor relations and corporate development, of course I got to learn a lot about this space. I also developed a large network in taking these companies on roadshows. It then made no sense to me that on these roadshows … companies were raising millions of dollars, but I never could get any commission or anything like this. That led to me wanting to get my designations as an investment banker as well, and I started a small investment bank in Toronto with partners in order to be able to take commission and broker warrants.

Then from that … yes, I was making a lot of money, but … I couldn’t control or have any influence really on how these mining companies were spending their money. That would sometimes jeopardize my contacts if the company was misspending what was given to them. [That] led me to the next brilliant idea that we should — that I should just start my own company, which I did cofound with Brien Lundin who writes the Gold Newsletter and runs the New Orleans Investment Conference. This is my first company that I’ve been running, [which] means that it has to work … this will be my first win, everyone’s had a first time and I’m still waiting for mine. 

INN: I have one final question — this was one that came up not for you at the pitch battle, but for somebody else. What could go wrong with the company or with the projects, how would you answer that question?

BB: What could go wrong with the company or the projects? It’s managed well, so corporately I don’t think anything could really go wrong. But as far as the projects, although we have a great degree of certainty of what the grade is and the prospectivity of all four of these assets, it’s quite possible, even though we’re derisking them with each month … [and] every single time we do work we just seem to be finding high-grade minerals … it could be that we end up spending millions of dollars and a lot of time, and we do find out that these projects just don’t have the size potential. That’s — I mean, that’s possible.

There’s very little bit of country risk these days, but there’s also a limitless number of other things that could go wrong just globally that could happen, that could kill exploration. That’s why we have to have thick skin.

INN: Really it sounds like it’s going pretty well.

BB: It really is going well, we’re going to have news flow now — starting now, all the way through November, so shareholders will be able to keep apprised of our progress, and we’re in talks still with joint venture partners. We’re not depending on that for this season, we hope something happens on one of the assets, [but] if it doesn’t, that’s totally fine too because we’re doing a lot of work now.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.