Company Report: HTX Minerals
Attention to data A disciplined data approach sets this mining company apart

HTX Minerals Corp., is an acronym for High Technology Exploration, explains Scott McLean, President and Chief Executive of the Sudbury, Ontario-based private mining company. Using a technology based systematic approach to exploring for nickel, copper and platinum group metals, the HTX team, who have extensive experience in finding key mineral discoveries, are currently managing four projects near Timmins, Thunder Bay and Red Lake, Ontario and are in the process of developing another. The company develops new, high quality exploration targets and brings technical expertise to existing exploration projects through joint venture and/or acquisitions.

Late in 2007, McLean and Kevin Stevens teamed up with David Elliott of Haywood Securities in Vancouver to form HTX Minerals. Elliott, at the time, had a vision to build a strong technical exploration team driven towards discovery. McLean and Stevens had the credentials to meet this vision both having a successful career with mining giant Falconbridge Limited with a storied discovery track record including being the key discoverers of the world-class Ni Rim South orebody in Sudbury for which they received the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada 2004 “Prospector of the Year Award.” Since that time the team has grown to include two exceptional geologists, Joel Hrominchuk and Grant Mourre, both of who also worked together with McLean and Stevens at Falconbridge.

What sets HTX apart? It’s a mix of having an experienced team and a focus on technology and data.

TECHNOLOGY DRIVEN
“We have a significant technological prowess for a junior company,” says McLean. “Our approach is very technological and data driven. We develop targets in a very systematic way that leads to realistic expectations and prospects. Our attention is on the data rather than simply what the storyline is,” says McLean. Using advanced computer technology including 3D GIS programs, MapInfo®, GOCAD®, GeoSoft® and others, the team digitally compiles exploration information with an emphasis on geophysical data interpretation to uncover new targets in the northern Ontario terrain in advance of acquisition decisions.

Terry Johnston, the Data Manager at HTX who has over 20 years of experience in advanced computer technology and who was the Data Manager for the Ontario Geological Survey, has created a single, seamless database that allows the HTX team to focus on operating with high project performance and target selection by using 2D and 3D geoscience data sets. “We saw a real need and opportunity to go out there and collect these data sets and put them in a platform where we can visualize them in a 2D and 3D space and apply our specialized filters towards our exploration criteria in order to identify targets,” says McLean.

This systematic, technological approach seems to work for him and his team. McLean, says HTX is well on the way to reaching its founding objectives as a result of the company’s consistent push towards data compilation and technical targeting. “What started with two good guys standing in front of investors and saying ‘we want to do this’ has turned into an excellent team of experts that has generated quality projects and created a strategic alliance with a major mining company.” McLean adds that the company was started with the intention of finding a 5 million tonne deposit within 5 years. With about a year and a half under the belt, the company has four significant target projects that are very prospective for Ni and PGE mineralization with Archean greenstone belts and the Proterozoic Mid-Continental Rift system. In addition, the Strategic Alliance formed with South African-based Impala Platinum, the world’s second largest producer of platinum, has been very successful through the support of project generative activities and more recently by Impala’s decision to Joint Venture one of HTX’s projects.

ON THE PATH TO SUCCESS
Looking ahead, McLean remains optimistic that the commodity markets, which have suffered as a result of the financial downturn, will rebound. “I feel strongly that the market will tighten as demand increases for base metals once again,” he says, and adds that he thinks that strong demand for nickel may take a couple of years to fully return but constraints on the supply side of platinum make it a particularly attractive market in the nearer term.

HTX Minerals is made up of an experienced team with a diverse but complimentary skill-set, says McLean, which is one of the reasons the company has been able to position itself well for the next commodity boom in such a short time. The team is driven to meet its discovery objectives with a sound combination of good science and understanding of the business. McLean says he has a knack for surrounding himself with the industry’s best people and believes he has done just that with the HTX team. “It will pay off in rewards,” he promises.

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