Investor Education: The Art of Exploration and Discovery with Jody Dahrouge

Making discoveries is challenging work, but Jody Dahrouge has made a career doing exactly that.

Speaking to the Investing News Network, Dahrouge, who is president of Dahrouge Geological Consulting, shared his thoughts on the exploration and discovery process and outlined the strategies that have brought him success.

Dahrouge is behind multiple well-known discoveries, with one of the most recent being what eventually became Patriot Battery Metals' (TSXV:PMET,ASX:PMT,OTCQX:PMETF) Corvette lithium project in the James Bay area of Quebec, Canada.

Emphasising that making discoveries takes time and is a group effort, Dahrouge said the Corvette find dates all the way back to 2015 and 2016, when he and his team acquired several properties in Northern Quebec. While reviewing the area, Neil McCallum, Dahrouge Geological's principal geologist, found reference to spodumene in an outcrop in an old report.

An investigation of that outcrop showed that there was spodumene everywhere. "That's the CV-1 outcrop," Dahrouge said. "They started naming these outcrops … in the order they discovered them. I'm not sure what they're up to, but it's probably in the 50s, 60s, 70s."

Dahrouge also gave advice for investors when evaluating lithium companies, and spoke about other commodities he thinks are interesting right now, including uranium and rare earths, both of which are needed for the energy transition.

"I find it really intriguing that suddenly there's all these discoveries in specialty metals," he said. "I guess it's probably predicated on the demand for those metals — people are just starting to get out there and spend more dollars on these ideas."

Looking at exploration trends more broadly, Dahrouge commented on the difficulty of raising money for exploration in Canada compared to Australia or even the US, noting that Australia is making big strides in lithium.

"They're not risk averse — they look at a discovery and they jump in with both feet," he said. "One of the things about Australia — and I don't know what role this plays — but I believe on a capital gains front … you have to hold your shares for 12 months before you get that tax benefit, and so they're willing to pick a good idea and stick with it and make sure it works. That helps."

Watch the interview above for more from Dahrouge on the exploration and discovery process.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Charlotte McLeod, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure: The Investing News Network does not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the information reported in the interviews it conducts. The opinions expressed in these interviews do not reflect the opinions of the Investing News Network and do not constitute investment advice. All readers are encouraged to perform their own due diligence.