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 it's 2019 level at $52 million.
Project Generation Equity Portfolio
as of Dec 31 2020
| Symbol | Company | ALS >10% | ALS >20% | Royalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADZN:V | ADVENTUS | 15,605,927 | Y | |
| IRON: T | ALDERON IRON ORE | 52,526,206 | Y | |
| ABRA:V | ABRAPLATA RESOURCE CORP | Y | ||
| AHQ:ASX | ALLEGIANCE COAL | 54,639,176 | 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 | 5,899,125 | Y | |
| MD:V | MIDLAND EXPLORATION | Y | ||
| MUN:V | MUNDORO | N | ||
| OGN:V | OROGEN (prev Evrim/ Renaissance) | 19,929,515 | Y | |
| SGMA:V | SIGMA LITHIUM | Y | ||
| SURG-V | SURGE COPPER | N | ||
| WLF:V | WOLFDEN RESOURCES | 14,200,000 | 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.
