Communications Breakdown: Junior Mistakes, Results Edition

In the middle of the summer lull, I thought I would take a moment to talk about junior mining news releases in general. Next week, I’ll write about actual communications strategies.

Shareholders and investors who are not yet shareholders rely on junior companies to share their news and tell their stories. Yes, as every geo will tell you, the real story is in the core and 20 meters of 60 gpt gold will tell its own story. But there are very few bonanza grade results. How a company delivers 1.2 gpt results is the more common challenge.

News releases are a balancing act between geological details and a bigger picture. I was reading a press release the other day from a company which seemed to have interesting results by a lake. The company was good enough to name the lake. And that was it for location information. OK, Canada has tens of thousands of lakes and many of them have the same name - Wiki tells me that Nova Scotia boasts no less than six “Beaver Lakes”. So, Junior Mistake #1 - failing to give at least the province or state or, heck, country a project is located in.

Junior Mistake #2 is assuming that the reader is familiar with the company’s internal naming convention for particular targets on a property. Juniors tend to take on very large land positions and there may be a dozen separate targets each of which has an internal company name. How the heck am I supposed to know that Sweet Cheeks 3 is down strike from Harry’s Cascade? The obvious solution is for the company to include a map of the property discussed in the release.

OK, so now we know where the property is and where the holes are being drilled, ready for Junior Mistake #3: a page of hole by hole results usually highlighting the more exciting intervals. There is a place for such information, at the bottom of the press release. It is material, it should be disclosed, but more than three or four intervals and you have lost all but the most ADHD of your readers.

Putting all the intervals in is a mistake, leaving the interpretation out is Junior Mistake #4. Just having a quote from the CEO to the effect of “we are very excited/encouraged/engaged with our new results” is more than a little useless. At the same time, two paragraphs of rock talk from the company’s PhD geo leaves the reader none the wiser. A brief description of the geological model the company believes describes what it hopes is the deposit followed by how the drill results conform to that model is a great start.

The CEO’s comments, ideally leaving aside his or her emotional state, are a huge opportunity, too often missed as Junior Mistake #5, to indicate how the program is progressing relative to plan and what future work is planned based on the results disclosed. “We were surprised at the continuity of the mineralization as our model predicted gaps” is a great way to humble brag. CEO statements are all about expectation management.

Junior Mistake #6 is the unforced error of failing to link to a) the company website, b) the most current corporate presentation, c) the stock ticker. Web 101, links create engagement.

Junior Mistake #7 is thinking that anyone is going to read all of the press release. A solid headline, three bullet points, the gist of the news in paragraph one. The reality is that this is all the majority of your readers will read. Make it count.

Finally, and this is not a numbered mistake, firing a news release off onto the internet is the beginning, not the end, of a well-designed communications strategy. Making sure it hits social media - Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook - is obvious. However, a news release is an opportunity for a company to reach out to its shareholders and supporters. It can also be the keystone for interviews with the CEO. These will cost a bit but will amplify the news and what the company wants people to understand about that news.

In a crowded, noisy, marketplace avoiding mistakes and seizing opportunities can make a huge difference for a company’s share price.