Alan once felt 'out of his depth' at dinner with three geologists (Steve Robertson and two PhDs) discussing Humbug Skarn mineralization and carbonate formations, where he understood almost nothing, but he accepts this limitation and doesn't pretend to understand geological terminology.

Alan is interested in learning geology and asked Steve Robertson to help him find geology classes at Vancouver colleges, though he was unwilling to go through the process of getting transcripts from 1981 math and chemistry courses.

Alan was chairman of a professional cycling team headquartered in Atlanta and worked with a Swiss partner on amateur cycling acquisitions in the US, running 27 days of amateur cycling events that comprised the largest amateur cycling series in the US in 2017.

Alan will never retire because he likes what he's doing and doesn't know what he would replace it with; he contrasts himself with people who retire and travel, arguing that having ongoing challenges and learning opportunities is what keeps him engaged.

Alan is fascinated by mining because you can find something (copper) in a hole where half a percent of rock content is copper, extract it, and it then runs electricity everywhere on Earth, which he finds conceptually fascinating.

Alan's biggest regret is not marrying his wife sooner—he waited three years after meeting her before proposing, which he now considers a mistake.

Alan doesn't have macro-level business regrets, but he does reflect on a specific example: he sold his CPC (Capital Pool Company) stake in Astra Telecom at 75 cents per share (10x return) but the stock later reached $41, showing he could have made much more by holding longer.

Timing is often more stressful than stock performance for a CEO; Alan notes that he wanted a drilling rig at Humbug Breta 'a month ago' but timing it for September is the right decision because people are returning from holidays and the market will have more attention.

Alan emphasizes smaller successful milestones (singles, doubles, triples) over home runs (10-baggers) because expecting only grand slams is unrealistic and prevents appreciation of sustainable progress.

Alan got into mining because he met Craig Gibson and Peter McAu while living in Tucson, Arizona, and was attracted to mining by the concept of 'finding something out of nothing' and creating wealth, rather than because of geological passion.