Mr. Spence has conducted business in China for several years, including numerous high-level negotiations and transactions; in China’s outbound investments in mining resources. He was also CEO of a foreign-joint venture mining company in western China. He is Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of the Canadian mining valuation standards for mining projects; referenced by the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX-V) and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He has presented extensively on mining valuation. He has often been quoted in the media on international mining investments, in leading press such as Bloomberg, Financial Times of London, South China Morning Post, China Daily, CCTV, Chinese media, The Globe & Mail and Reuters.

As a field geologist, Mr. Spence has experience in gold and base metals exploration in the Canadian north, China and internationally. He is a member of the Board of Directors of The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), Hon. Board of Trustees of The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and is a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD). He has been on the Boards of  Ontario Place and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM); and is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council, Faculty of Science -Western University. He was Chairman of The Toronto Board of Trade, Gardiner Awards and was named a Toronto Trailblazer.

Mr. Spence received the CIM Distinguished Lecturer Award, the CIM Fellowship Award, the Robert Elver Mineral Economics Award for outstanding contributions to Canadian mineral economics; and received the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal Award, for contributions to Canada.  A Commonwealth Scholar, he has an Honors B.Sc. in Geology from the University of Western Ontario, an MBA from the Ivey School of Business and is a graduate of the Global Management program from Harvard University.