Tuesday April 8, 2014 9:00 AM
(Kitco News) - You’d be hard pressed to find a 26-year old, as the spearhead of a publicly traded company, continuing to study and build his academic credentials.
That’s just what Skyharbour Resources Ltd.’s (TSXV:SYH) Jordan Trimble, president and chief executive officer, is doing.
“Considering my age and what I’d like to do over the next 5-6 year period, I have the ability and time right now to pursue education,” said Trimble, in a telephone interview with Kitco News.
 |
| Jordan Trimble (center) flanked by the Western Athabasca Syndicate. |
Trimble is currently navigating his way through the third level of his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program, which he started in 2012, but also has a bachelor’s degree from the University of British Columbia in biochemistry, with a minor in commerce. Sandwiched in between his CFA studies and university degree are studies and several courses, ranging from geology to exploration to mining courses.
But Trimble won’t tell you he’s a geologist.
“I’m more focused on markets and finance. I don’t pretend to be a geologist,” he said with a laugh.
As you may have picked up, Trimble wasn’t studying biochemistry as a gateway to enter the world of mining.
“I was exposed to it, but, to be perfectly honest, when I was younger I wasn’t that interested in getting into it,” Trimble said. “I found out in my university years that it was something I was good at, and most importantly, passionate about.”
Trimble notes that he was always around the industry, with his father running management at Vancouver-based 98 Corporate Group Resources Ltd., which he was exposed to, but never really considered being a part of.
“I went to a lot conferences with my dad growing up,” Trimble continued. “I wanted to do my own thing, and it was kind of a blessing in disguise because I grew into it, instead of being pushed into it.
“I was planning to go into medical school and I realized it wasn’t really for me,” Trimble said. “I finished up my science classes and ended up switching to do a minor in commerce, and that’s kind of where I got my taste for what I’m doing now.”
Related Stories:
That taste came from working over a summer with 98, doing basic investor relations tasks. In January 2010, with his university degree completed, Trimble hit the ground running, immediately joining 98.
The company provides management services including back office admin, paralegal, investor relations, accounting and more for five companies; Skyharbour Resources Ltd., Bayfield Ventures Corp., Aben Resources Ltd., Cypress Development Corp. and MPH Ventures. Trimble made his bones with Bayfield, working closely with Jim Pettit, chief executive officer of Bayfield.
“We built the company up, financed it and made a discovery in the fall of 2010,” Trimble said. “We received the (TSX) Venture 50 award, we were the third top mining company in 2010, which is one of the better years on the Venture.
“Over 120,000 meters of drilling and it was our group that did all the financing for it, we’ve proven up a resource there and it’s a strong potential takeout candidate,” he said.
Towards the end of 2012, Trimble moved onto a new opportunity, which was to build Skyharbour into a reputable company.
“It had $1 million in the treasury, a few legacy assets, but nothing you were going to successfully build shareholder value with, especially once the market started deteriorating,” Trimble said. “I went at it with my undivided attention, where I did my homework and necessary due diligence, recognize and position the company in a sector that I felt offered the most value.
“The uranium space was one that stood out to me, from a top/down approach,” he continued. “It had all the key indicators and ingredients of a sector that has been completely decimated from a few outlier events, with the most recent being Fukushima.”
Having settled on a specific commodity, Trimble set his sights on exploring the Athabasca Basin, located in northern Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada.
Before long, Trimble and Skyharbour honed in on an unprecedented opportunity in the Patterson Lake region.
“The Patterson Lake area presented a two-fold fold opportunity, one being you had a new discovery in an area that had not seen much exploration – the discovery consisting of very high-grade, shallow uranium mineralization,” Trimble said. “Second, you had online staking become available in Saskatchewan, which allowed us to amass one of the largest land positions in this emerging area, at a very reasonable price in early 2013.”
Next for Trimble was finding partners to help finance exploration in the area. He put together the Western Athabasca Syndicate, where Skyharbour and three other companies would pool their technical expertise, resources and capital to work as a cohesive unit in the area.
During his young career, Trimble said this has been his biggest success to date.
“This was a company that didn’t have much life, it didn’t really have any value drivers, and was kind of dead in the water,” he said. “I came in with our team and built it up to what it is now, and what it will become. That’s one thing to note, I am as determined as can be to make this deal a success and I’m going to do everything in my power to make it work.”
Trimble also pointed out that his success at such a young age came with the help, and mentorship, of the people he surrounds himself with. His father, Jim Pettit and Don Huston are among the many he named who have helped him grow into the position he holds today.
“I don’t pretend to know everything. I’m a young guy, how could I?” Trimble said. “I really do utilize the resources around me, the biggest being my mentors and the people that I work with that have many decades of experience.”
His greatest obstacle has been overcoming the misconception that his age would hinder him.
“As a young person, you’re impressionable, you wear everything on your sleeves, you can get caught up in the emotions of the industry – good and bad,” he said. “The biggest thing I’ve learned is how to manage that, how to not get worked up over the little things and, it’s probably cliché, but when you get knocked down, just get right back up.
“The most successful accomplishments I have in this business have come from powering through those moments.”
No comments:
Post a Comment