Erin Chutter has a yellow sticky on her wall that reads, “Want it more than sleep.”
The 37-year-old mining executive believes her success is due to an unwavering persistence to succeed.
“One of the character traits I admire more and more in people is persistence,” she said. “It’s easy when things are going really well to take credit for things that would’ve happened anyway, but when you run into challenges or see someone who has been persistent day in and day out … that’s something I really appreciate.”
These days, Chutter’s mining mettle is tested every day in Vancouver’s extremely competitive junior exploration sector, which is home to more than 800 companies.
When she’s not volunteering in her community or raising her family, Chutter is downtown working with investors, bankers, colleagues and project partners to build Puget Ventures (TSX-V:PVS) into the world’s next cobalt producer.
But her career hasn’t always been about rocks.
Chutter started out as a strategic planning and communications consultant. She helped run political campaigns for the likes of former premier Gordon Campbell, and counted members of Vancouver’s natural resource sector among her clients.
Eventually, she got the mining bug and decided she wanted a company of her own.
Earlier this year, Chutter engineered a reverse-takeover deal that gave Puget a large cobalt deposit in Siberia. The Russian government has also committed $400 million to help build the project.
Chutter said although building a junior exploration company is tough work, it’s not all that different from running a political campaign.
“It’s very much like putting together a campaign; you need to put together strategy, attract and hire the right technical talent, inspire a team, get everyone working in the same direction and ask perfect strangers for money.” •
