Diamond & Specialty Minerals Summary for March 10, 2023 Allan Barry Laboucan's Advance Lithium Corp. (AALI) closed unchanged at 4.5 cents on 666,000 shares. Advance retreated one-half cent to 4.5 cents on 5.72 million shares Thursday on word that the company has acquired an option to earn a 100-per-cent interest in the Tetagouche project in New Brunswick from Wolfden Resources Corp. (WLF: $0.185). To acquire the project, Advance will give Wolfden 16.62 million shares, enough for a 19.9-per-cent interest in the company. And that is just the start: Advance must pay $250,000 in cash or stock each year until it spends at least $3-million on the project.
Tetagouche is a polymetallic project, with copper the lead metal -- a bit unusual for a company that touts itself as a lithium hunter. "Thirteen salars in central Mexico," screams Advance's website, applauding "sustainable green mining" of lithium, boron and potassium, but remember that Mr. Laboucan has been an adaptable promoter since he swapped newsletter writing for a corner office on Howe Street nearly a decade ago.
Mr. Laboucan got his Howe Street start with Dunnedin Ventures Inc., a diamond explorer at the time, back in the mid-2010s. A consultant to Dunedin, Mr. Laboucan was shown the door when his contract expired, and he plotted a dissident bid for control. The threat eventually melted away after Mr. Laboucan popped up as president and CEO of Alset Energy Corp.
Mr. Laboucan concurrently appeared as president and CEO of Advance in 2017, and while his tenure at Alset ended within a year, he has stuck with Advance through a series of changes -- shifting from gold to lithium late in 2021. Now, Mr. Laboucan is "excited" by his acquisition of Tetagouche, where he cheers modern exploration techniques will aid new discoveries in the old Bathurst mining camp. And so, the big new project " represents a huge opportunity for a major discovery," Mr. Laboucan beams.