Jacquie McNish's "The Big Score: Robert Friedland, INCO and the Voisey's Bay Hustle"Â chronicles the discovery, exploratory process and ultimate sale of the largest mineral deposit found in Canada in 40 years. Voisey’s Bay mine is an open-pit nickel mine in Labrador, 21 miles southwest of Nain and 50 miles northwest of Natuashish. It is not just a theoretical read as there are three publicly-traded companies involved with the mine: Vale SA (VALE, Financial), Royal Gold Inc. (RGLD, Financial) and Altius Minerals Corp. (TSX:ALS, Financial) (ATUSF, Financial).
Royal Gold and Altius Minerals are united in the Labrador Nickel Royalty Limited Partnership. The partnership owns a 3% net smelter royalty - NSR - covering the Voisey’s Bay mine: Altius with a 10% ownership interest and Royal Gold with a 90% ownership interest. The partnership is currently eating into both companies' profitability as it is producing no revenue but has legal fees associated with it.
Who should read this book?
For Vale, Royal Gold and Altius Minerals shareholders, this is mandatory reading. You get insight into the exploration of Voisey's Bay, the area where the resource is located, and the characters involved at different stages. This helps put some context around promotional claims, emotions and stakeholder involvement. At The Black Swan Portfolio, we own Royal Gold and Altius Minerals, so this certainly helped me gain helpful insight.
Investors interested in mining, specifically small-cap mining stocks, should definitely buy this book as well. There is great insight into the promotional nature of early-stage exploration as well as what it can mean if you really hit the mother lode as early investors in Voisey's Bay did.
The "Big Score" is really well written, which expands its potential audience a lot. Some business books can be extremely interesting to a certain niche audience, but If you are interested in Canadian business history or business history in general, this is a great read.
The in-depth descriptions of the characters and their motivations for certain approaches also turns the book into a fascinating read if you deal with business negotiations in your life.
Who should not read this book?
The book describes the saga around the discovery and ultimate sale of this resource. It does not go into depth about mining or exploration techniques. You are not going to learn how to interpret geological results or learn much of anything technical. If you are looking for that kind of context, you will not find it here.
If you are looking for a book on business conspiracy or a biography of the characters involved, you will be disappointed. Robert Friedland, one of the major roleplayers, is portrayed most vividly and, I suspect, in a fair way. However, it is not a biography on this colorful figure.
Finally, the book is rather lengthy and, at times, offers a drawn-out account of chronological business events that may or may not be interesting to you. Again, it is well written, balanced and the writer does not get lost in detail. But it is about real life. Real life is not always exciting, and if you are looking for a page-turner progressing from one cliffhanger to the next, you are better off searching through Amazon’s fiction section.
Dislosure: Author owns positions in Royal Gold and Altius Minerals.
