The Science of Happiness
“The world is your oyster but, no one is going to give it to you on a silver spoon”
-Joanne Freeze
The Science of Happiness - Meet Joey
Joanne (Joey) Freeze is a Calgary-born geologist in the mining exploration business. Over the course of her 35-year career, she has been involved in a slew of mining projects in South and North America from exploration and development to financing and acquisition. Today she serves as the President, CEO, and Director of Candente Copper Corp. (DNT:TSX), the company she co-founded in 1997 before going public in 2000. Candente is developing its flagship project Cañariaco, within which Cañariaco Norte, is the 10th largest late-stage copper resource in the world (over 9B pounds copper, 2.1M ounces of gold and 59.4M ounces of silver Measured and Indicated*) and 6th highest in grade (RFC Ambrian, December 2021 and Haywood, December 2021). A positive PEA was recently completed on its 100% owned Cañariaco project. Joey also serves as the President, CEO, and Director of Xali Gold Corp. (XGC:TSX.V)
As Peru’s mining industry was exploding in the 1990s, Freeze had the opportunity to move there with her young family. Within a year, the junior mining company she was working for went bust and she found herself consulting three days a week for various Canadian exploration concerns. A friend suggested they start their own junior. The only problem was funding or, rather, lack of it. Shortly after, on summer holiday back in Canada, another friend introduced her to a few bankers from Toronto. When she returned to Peru a month later, she checked her voicemail and realized she was well on her way to raising the first $1 million. And, she hasn’t stopped since. To date, she has been instrumental in raising over $100 million in equity financings for mineral exploration.
In a profession where 75% of all geologists are male, she states as a woman she never felt at unwelcome–well, only one time. “By the end of this job interview, I just knew this company was not really interested in hiring any women but going through the motions,” she says. “So, I asked them: do you hire a lot of women? They said no actually. Then I inquired, do many women apply here? He hesitated, and replied, yes actually. As he offered me their brochure and said he’d be in touch, I said thank you but I won’t be needing that and left.”
As in other male-dominated fields, women in the geosciences routinely face more challenges in career advancement than their male peers. Her advice to women: “Follow your passion. After you are educated, make sure you get the right kind of experiences and take advantage of opportunities. Forget about gender and don’t worry about being different. They [investors] are there to make money. If you know what you’re doing and what you’re talking about, they will listen to you.”