Metals News - Leadership Spotlight: Scott Mclean President and CEO of Transition Metals Corp. (XTM -TSX.V) Interview by Allen Alper Jr.

Leadership Spotlight: Scott Mclean President and CEO of Transition Metals Corp. (XTM -TSX.V) Interview by Allen Alper Jr.

Allen Alper, Jr., President, Metals News

While at the Sprott Natural Resource Symposium in Vancouver, Canada, we met with Scott McLean, HBSc. P.Geo. and President and CEO of Transition Metals Corp. (XTM -TSX.V), a Canadian-based, multi-commodity project generator that specializes in converting new exploration ideas into discoveries. Mr. McLean won the Prospector of the Year Award, from the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), back in 2004, and in 2014 the Transition Metals team won The Ontario Discoverers of the Year, for their Sunday Lake platinum palladium discovery in Thunder Bay.

Scott has over 30 years of experience including 23 years with Falconbridge Limited in exploration and management resulting in the discovery of various mineral deposits including the 17 million tonne Nickel Rim South deposit in Sudbury, Ontario. He was also appointed to the transitional board of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario and has represented the profession as President. In addition to Transition Metals, Mr. McLean sits on the boards of Tesoro Minerals Corp, Sudbury Platinum Corporation (private), Carolina Gold Resources Inc. (private) and Canadian Gold Miner (private).

Scott McLean, President and CEO of Transition Metals Corp. (XTM -TSX.V)

Allen Alper Jr: I'm here with Scott McLean, President and CEO of Transition Metals Corp., previous winner of, PDAC’s Prospector of the Year Award in 2004.

Scott McLean: Recently, in 2014, our Transition Metals team, along with our joint venture partner Impala Platinum Holdings (“Implats”), were awarded the Ontario Discovery of the Year, for our Sunday Lake platinum palladium discovery.

Allen Alper Jr: So, tell me, what do you think of as your biggest discovery?

Scott McLean: Collectively, our team has been very successful, probably something like 60 million tons of reserves and resources over time, in terms of discovery.

I was a cofounder of Nickel Rim South, one of the biggest discoveries that we had, which we made while I was with Falconbridge. It's a significant high-grade nickel-copper-PGM discovery, on the East Range of the Sudbury and Gas Basin.

After that, our Sunday Lake platinum palladium discovery, for which we were awarded the Ontario Discovery of the Year. That's the culmination of a great strategic alliance with Impala Platinum Holdings (“Implats”), out of South Africa, and a good strong technical team at Transition Metals. We worked in an area along the Mid-Continental Rift for a five-year period.

Under our strategic alliance, we created about 11 projects, and the one that really shone out was Sunday Lake. Our discovery hole there was about 20 meters of about three and a half grams of platinum plus palladium, mostly platinum.

Subsequently, we brought in North American Palladium, and they've been out there drilling, with a number of intersections of 40 meters and greater, at about four grams, platinum plus palladium. It isn't at a resource level yet, but certainly it's on its way. We're really excited about this project.

Allen Alper Jr: How do you go about making these types of discoveries?

Scott McLean: Well, I think it's a process. There's a wealth of IP, or knowledge that we have, with respect to various data sets, geoscientific data sets, and also our past experience. So, when we go into an area, we generally like to take a number of different geoscientific data sets, that include geology, geophysics, and geochemistry.

We love to take those data sets from government public areas, from other companies, from knowledge that we have, and we collectively put that data into a single platform. Then we are able to filter that data to identify targets that we elucidate, as prospective opportunities.

A lot of them don't pan out. That's one of the beauties of a project generator that I run at Transition Metals. We're involved in numerous projects, and we mitigate some of the risk, but we also allow our shareholders many opportunities to be involved in discovering.

Allen Alper Jr: You're saying, you learn something from dry holes?

Scott McLean: Certainly, you do. Every piece of data that we collect is important. We archive that data, and build it into the model that actually focuses on areas, in which we want to do further investment. We continually identify new targets. This year we've generated about 11 new projects, and brought them into the basket. We're also able to identify new opportunities within old projects that we have, or other projects that have been worked by other folks, and look to elucidate the economic opportunities within those.

Allen Alper Jr: Excellent! Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Scott McLean: All my success has come from the people I've been able to attract around me. I think that's one of the skill sets that I have, being able to attract the industry's best. They're the real champions that have brought success to the company.

Allen Alper Jr: Is there anyone you want to point out specifically?

Scott McLean: Well, the principal team at Transition Metals consists of four technical individuals and a strong CFO. Those individuals include Greg Collins, who's our Chief Operating Officer, Grant Mourre, our Exploration Manager and President of SPC Metals, and Tom Hart, who's a strong technical expert and operates as our VP of Exploration.

Allen Alper Jr: Is there anything else you'd like to add about Transition Metals?

Scott McLean: I think it's a great company. It's certainly a great buy on the market right now.

Allen Alper Jr: Thank you very much for your insights, Scott.

Scott McLean: Thank you. http://www.transitionmetalscorp.com/

Scott McLean
President and CEO
Transition Metals Corp.
Tel: (705) 669-1777
info@transitionmetalscorp.com

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