Project Generation / Exploration
Altius has built a portfolio of directly and indirectly held junior resource investments that have been generated from founding stakes and earn-in option related payments through its joint venture strategy to advance projects as well as selective investing in other juniors employing a project generation and joint venture business model.
Altius' PG strategy is simple but requires a longer cyclically based strategy than most of our industry peers. We organically assemble and generate prospective geological real estate around the globe during periods of bear sentiment when capital for most is sparse, hence competition is light. To put this into perspective from 2012 to 2016 Altius assembled nearly 2 million of hectares of land in 9 different jurisdictions covering prospective terrains for copper, nickel, zinc, iron ore, coal, gold and even diamonds. When the market turned in 2017 Altius was poised to sell its portfolio of lands to juniors in return for equity stakes and underlying royalty interests. In 2019, sales of these equity positions generated net gains of $17 million, while the mark-to-market value of the portfolio increased to $54 million. At the end of 2020, further net gains of $6.7 million were realized, with the portfolio ending value close to its 2019 level at $52 million. New equities are frequently being added to the portfolio primarily from the vending of new projects generated by the PG group in exchange for equity stakes. 2020 was a very productive year for project sales citing renewed exploration globally including a bona fide gold rush in central Newfoundland where Altius is strategically positioned as well as province wide with a portfolio of prospective gold, nickel and copper projects .
Project Generation Equity Portfolio
as of March 31 2021
| Symbol | Company | ALS >10% | ALS >20% | Royalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADZN:V | ADVENTUS | 15,984,738 | Y | |
| IRON: T | ALDERON IRON ORE | 52,526,206 | Y | |
| ABRA:V | ABRAPLATA RESOURCE CORP | Y | ||
| CANX:V | CANEX METALS | 6,805,000 | Y | |
| ROX:V | CANSTAR RESOURCES |
7,669,024 |
Y | |
| CNT:T | CENTURY GLOBAL |
Y | ||
| CIA:T | CHAMPION IRON LTD |
N | ||
| CEM:V | CONSTANTINE |
N | ||
| MIN:T | EXCELSIOR MINING |
Y | ||
| SAG:V | STERLING - FORMERLY LATIN AMERICAN MINERALS |
6,505,186 | Y | |
| MD:V | MIDLAND EXPLORATION | Y | ||
| MUN:V | MUNDORO |
N | ||
| OGN:V | OROGEN (Previously Evrim / Renaissance) |
25,865,015 | Y | |
| SGMA:V | SIGMA LITHIUM | Y | ||
| SURG:V | SURGE COPPER |
N | ||
| WLF:V | WOLFDEN RESOURCES | 17,325,000 | Y | |
| URC:V | URANIUM ROYALTY CORP. |
N | ||
1 AbraPlata Resource Corp. holdings in table reflect only direct holdings through open market purchases.
Altius also holds 49% of 42,000,000 shares through its Mining Equity Joint Venture interest.
Our model has worked well by allowing exposure to multiple opportunities while minimizing negative impacts to the capital structure of the company all the while creating royalties at a zero to often negative cost for future benefit to all shareholders. Earnings generated from the prospect generation business are either re-circulated into the exploration business or used to acquire third party royalties to augment the internally generated royalties held by the business.
