Definitely think the Dahrouge group are selling lots of shovels, and with a service maintenance programme - good on them!
I have gone through all the current contenders for the cup and will give a brief summary of my musings. Of course none of this is advice, DYOR and please let me know anything extra. I'm discussing this with a view of team interconnections, and teams with or without Lithium experience. Sadly a strong contender is disqualified as its market cap already over $100 mill, being Winsome with Stephen Biggins (ex CXO MD) and Chris Evans (PLS' Pilgangoora mine development) and the Adina/Cancet projects.
BMM - their Quebec project (two tenement packages Corvette North and Corvette Northwest) not on greenbelt. A couple of familiar names on the team but not for Lithium. Other projects in Serbia and Ontario. Low SOI.
BUR Burley - Have WA projects. 2 Quebec projects: Bouvier project is further up the same greenstone belt as Sayona’s NAL and Chubb is a bit SE of Bouvier. Has David Crook, geologist with Lithium Experience, linked to Charger Metals CHR. Apparently he was MD at Pioneer Resources, which is now ESS, so has Lithium experience. "Mr Crook has led lithium-focussed teams exploring LCT pegmatites at Mavis Lake and Raleigh, Canada (now Critical Resources), Dome North (Essential Metals Limited) and Medcalf (Charger Metals NL) all advancing spodumene deposits, and also lead the discovery and mining of the Sinclair Mine, Australia’s only Caesium mine." C1X Cosmos - 2 Quebec projects: Corvette Far East 100% and La Salle (75%). Aussie Byro East 100%, Ni, Cu, PGE, Drilling Oct 23. Orange East Gold (80%) near McPhilamys, awaiting assays. Leo Horn geologist now a NED and leading CFE exploration. Jeremy Robinson is EC, ED here and also at REE. REE also has Cam Henry NED (GT1, Primero Group) and John Young NED (co-founder of PLS). Dahrouge Resources are a Shareholder. Jeremy and Cam Henry also cofounders of Churchill Strategic Investments. So clear links here with Lithium knowledge bases. Still low SOI.
CBH Coolabah Metals - 3 James Bay projects (Carmoy, Mago North, Taiga), none on Greenstone. No relevant Lithium Experience IMO.
Cygnus - don't need to summarise this here.
DAF - Discovery Alaska (3 x James Bay Projects (Mia Adjacent, Lac C, Corvette East; none on greenstone). Has a project in Alaska. This team has some lithium experience, their NED Peter Lloyd was a founding member of Argosy, but he’s a lawyer. Also has Jerko Zuvela NED, a geologist that also NEC and NED at Ragusa. Their last quarterly said they had $ 882,000 and 7 quarters of funds available, but that seems questionable to me.
FIN Resources - 3 projects in Quebec Cancet West adjoins CY5 Sakami, Ross which is above OM1, and Gaspe which is a Clay project south. A couple of Aus projects too. Aaron Bertolatti is FIN’s secretary / NED and is also MEG’s secretary. FIN’s Technical Director is Brian Talbot who was previously Galaxy Resources Limited's head of Australian Operations and the technical lead for the development of the evaporation ponds and chemical processing of lithium salts.
FRS Forrestania Resources - 50% JV with ALX Resources for Hydra Lithium Project, which comprises 8 smaller projects but they only list 6 that I can see (Volta bw PMT and C1X), Echo and Nike (North of LLI Brisk), Sprite (just above LLI Brisk area 3), Cobra/Viper West near KNI Mia North. Previously looking for Gold, Lithium & Nickel in WA. Their MD is Michael Anderson of Firefinch notoriety. They have Melissa McClelland geologist that was involved with Mt Holland Lithium exploration.
IEC Intra Energy - Llama Lithium project from DHG. Seem more experienced at coal and base metals. "IEC has two operating subsidiary companies, Tancoal Energy Limited (Tancoal) and Intrafrican Resources Limited (IRL). IEC is a developer and producer of thermal coal in Eastern Africa operating under the motto of "African coal for African growth".
KNI Kuniko - Kuniko was focused on the development of copper, nickel, and cobalt projects in Scandinavia. Now also has 3 Quebec projects: Fraser, Mia North on greenstone, Nemaska South near Whabouchi. NED Brendan Borg is their lithium geologist and he’s a NED at LLL. Gavin Rezos (an investment banker) is their NEC and NED and is also Vulcan’s NED and NEC. He’s also NED and NEC of REZ Resources and Energy group. Vulcan is a major shareholder.
KOB - has Manitoba, WA, US projects and 2 in Quebec: JB1 and JB2 that are either side of CY5 Mitsumis, not greenstone. NEC / NED is Michael Haynes who is a major SH of LLI. Their Geologist Ben Vallerine has 20 years experience but not for Li that was highlighted.
LLI - similar to Cygnus, changed from gold to Quebec/US Lithium explorer. Has Trieste (greenstone near Adina/RBX) and Brisk (not greenstone near Sakami) in Quebec, Yellowknife in North West, and Scotty (a clay/brine project) in Nevada adjacent to Nevada Lithium’s Bonnie Clare project. Standout for me MD is Adam Ritchie - Over 20 years’ experience in the resources sector having held senior positions at Australia’s leading resources companies including Pilbara Minerals, FMG, Rio Tinto & BHP. Former Project Director of Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS) flagship Pilgangoora Lithium Project. Major Shareholder is Meesha Investments which is for Cam Henry of GT1/Primero. DH Resources are also a Shareholder.
MEG - Megadoo. On a greenbelt north of the rest (only PR1 is higher) but it’s a different colour greenbelt to CY5/WR1/PMT/C1X's CFE. Have some Tonalite and amphibolite. Has another project in Idaho. Aaron Bertolatti their secretary is linked to FIN. Their NEC and NED Brad Drabsch is a geologist and worked at Trek Metals, so there is a link here to John Young who is a ED at Trek Metals.
MLS - too small to bother for me.
OM1 Omnia. Lac De Montagnes Lithium Project. All have direct shareholding. James Warren is OM1’s geologist and ED, he’s also a NED at PR1. His experience seems more of gold. Other management not as focused on Lithium, which probably makes sense as the Lac De Montagnes is their first Lithium project. Kane Freeman is their exploration manager, but I can’t find much info about him other than he’s previously worked at Trek Metals. Another link to John Young if the times married up (but may not have). They have a bunch of other projects but it seems this has become their focus. The Lac De Montagnes has been highlighted by MERN as highly prospective for spodumene, has granites of the spodumene suite (same as Whabouchi) on the tenements.
PR1 Pure Resources - Laforge greenstone belt Quebec project. March announced results of field sampling programme that seemed to disappoint the market but was only on a small portion of the package. Have just announced another acquisition in Finland. Aforementioned link to OM1 via James Warren. The EC here is Patric Glovac who co-founded GTT Ventures, similar to Bluebird Capital, which is an investment firm that makes money vending projects to other explorers (eg OM1, PR1, Charger Metals).
RB6 Rubix - Ceiling Lithium far West on greenstone. A couple of projects in Australia. Not much Lithium experience that I can see.
RBX Resource Base - Started with Rare Earth projects in Aus and CU/Au in Stavely, the latter has been de-prioritised. Bought 2 Quebec projects: Wali adjoins Cosmos and Ernst Lake adjoins LLI Trieste and is below Adina. They have engaged Explo-Logik to undertake field mapping in June, and impressively the announcement made a note of saving money by sharing costs for the works with 3 companies. No specific lithium experience here, their NED Paul Hissey started out as a geologist and worked on BHP’s Olympic Dam, he then turned to equities and worked at everybody’s favourite Goldman Sachs and Royal Bank of Canada. Their ED Brent Palmer is founding director of Bluebird Capital, similar to GTT Ventures, that was involved in vending projects to RBX.
REC Recharge Metals - WA project for Cu but now focus on their Express Lithium project that is between AKE's James Bay and Cygnus' Pontax and not on greenstone. It seems to be getting some attention from investors, it’s gone up quite a bit over the last couple of weeks. Their MD Felicity Repacholi-Muir is a geologist and also NED at Widgie Nickel; but they are relying on Dahrouge as consultants for Lithium exploration.
Cygnus seems to be the only company with all focus in Quebec.
