Resource World Magazine

MI N I N G Transition Metals active on several exploration fronts by Ellsworth Dickson The recent merger between Transition Metals Corp. [XTMTSXV] and HTX Minerals has provided the new Transition with a springboard for making significant mineral discoveries. Scott McLean, P .Geo, President and CEO, in an interview, said, "The main driver for bringing these companies together was the desire to build a larger project generator that would be similar in size to our peer companies. As a result of the merger, Transition now has a strong, award-winning, technical team of eight geologists and an impressive portfolio of over 30 projects across Canada covering over 2,000 km2 that includes 12 gold projects, 16 nickelcopper-platinum group elements projects, one copper and one diamond project." "Transition and HTX had common management, some common directors and many common shareholders," explained McLean. Under the terms of the merger, the common shares of Transition were consolidated on a two-old for one-new basis. HTX shareholders received Transition shares at an exchange ratio of 0.8 post-consolidation Transition shares for each HTX share and all shares of Transition held by HTX have been cancelled. "It was an obvious marriage of companies. Transition was goldfocused and HTX was focused on nickel sulphide deposits," he said. Transition has four key projects– two are gold projects, one is a copper project and one is magmatic sulphide project. Aer-Kidd, is a nickel-copper-PGM project near Sudbury, Ontario sandwiched between Vale's Totten near-production mine (10.1Mt of 1.5% nickel, 1.97% copper, 4.8 g/t PGM) and KGHM's Victoria Project (14.5Mt of 2.5% nickel, 2.5% copper, 7.6 g/t PGM). Aer-Kidd is a past producer that was mined near surface periodically, from the late 1800s until the late 1960s. Plans call for a $1.2 million program of drilling down-dip of the old ore body as well as borehole geophysics. Transition can earn up to a 70% interest from CaNickel Mining Ltd. [CML-TSX; CMI-FSE]. The Janice Lake Project, north-central Saskatchewan, has the potential to host large tonnage, near surface, sediment-hosted, copper deposits. The 117 km2 project, which they staked, was worked on by Noranda and Phelps-Dodge in the past. Grab samples have graded up to 9.35% copper and 61.76 g/t silver. Historic intersections include 33 metres of nearly 1% copper with silver credits. There are large, untested mineralized target areas along strike and down dip. Plans include airborne and ground geophysics, prospecting, re-logging drill core and drilling. The Haultain gold project is a new discovery in the south Abitibi greenstone belt of northeast Ontario. Samples have returned up to almost 100 g/t gold in places with good grades of multi-gram assays over mineable widths. There is a 1500-metre strike length of mineralization on surface that's open in all directions. Past drill results included 2.4 g/t gold over 7.1 metres, 4.7 SEPTEMBER 2013 g/t gold over 3.1 metres and 82.5 g/t gold over 0.4 metres. Channel sampling returned 66 metres of 2.0 g/t gold. Upcoming work includes $1 million in trenching, sampling and drilling, and the company is actively seeking a JV partner to help advance the project. The Itchen Lake Project in Nunavut has a 50-km strike length of mineralization in a banded iron formation that hosts gold mineralization along a prospective road corridor and interpreted to be along strike from the past-producing Lupin Mine. There are multi-gram assays on surface as well as in historic drilling. Many samples graded over 10 g/t gold up to bonanza grades of 48 and 75 g/t gold. Airborne geophysics, along with additional mapping and sampling, have recently been completed, in order to identify potential drill targets. Transition also has two strategic alliances that fund exploration programs. One is with Nunavut Resources Corp., a private, Inuitowned company. Plans call for Nunavut Resources to raise $18 million for exploration over five years generating numerous 50:50 joint ventures. Itchen Lake is the alliance's first such joint venture. The second alliance is with Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. [IMP-Jo'burg; IMPUY-OTCQX] (Implats), the world's second largest platinum producer. They are in the final year of their current three-year agreement that funds Transition about $1.3 million per year to generate 50:50 joint ventures within a region north of Lake Superior, Ontario. McLean said that Transition's project generator model avoids shareholder dilution through repeated financings and provides investors with multiple chances of success through mineral discoveries. n Drilling operations at the Haultain gold project in the southern Abitibi region of northeast Ontario. The inset photo shows visible gold in the quartz of a mineral sample. Photo courtesy Transition Metals Corp. www.resourceworld.com 43

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