ALS.TO - Altius Minerals

[Williams406]

Sculpin beat me to the punch on Callinan news. 777 royalties are large by Altius standards but not long life (2021 per Hudbay, the operator). The company looks to me like it is in a race to replace that revenue and exploration deals weren't cutting it. Callinan's balance sheet, if the company remains a going concern, could be a partner with Altius ($24 million in cash, no debt) on acquiring producing royalties. Altius could acquire 777 royalty or a portion of it or pick off some Callinan exploration deals. Given Altius' balance sheet, I don't see them buying any thing other than producing royalties. Some other party may have an interest in buying Callinan entirely, giving Altius an opportunity to cash out.

 

Callinan's interim CEO is a recent board addition (2013) and is founding partner of Boswell Capital Corporation and had a stint at Haywood Securities building out their Toronto office. A recent presentation that I can't find on the Callinan site now listed next to Altius' 6% ownership stake an "undisclosed" owner with a stake roughly on par with Altius'. Perhaps something material comes of this for Altius, perhaps not. I've got the bowl of popcorn out and will at least enjoy that.

 

 

 

 

[bizaro86]

Sculpin beat me to the punch on Callinan news. 777 royalties are large by Altius standards but not long life (2021 per Hudbay, the operator). The company looks to me like it is in a race to replace that revenue and exploration deals weren't cutting it. Callinan's balance sheet, if the company remains a going concern, could be a partner with Altius ($24 million in cash, no debt) on acquiring producing royalties. Altius could acquire 777 royalty or a portion of it or pick off some Callinan exploration deals. Given Altius' balance sheet, I don't see them buying any thing other than producing royalties. Some other party may have an interest in buying Callinan entirely, giving Altius an opportunity to cash out.

 

Callinan's interim CEO is a recent board addition (2013) and is founding partner of Boswell Capital Corporation and had a stint at Haywood Securities building out their Toronto office. A recent presentation that I can't find on the Callinan site now listed next to Altius' 6% ownership stake an "undisclosed" owner with a stake roughly on par with Altius'. Perhaps something material comes of this for Altius, perhaps not. I've got the bowl of popcorn out and will at least enjoy that.

 

Interesting. Does anyone have a feel of whether in-situ recovery is a reasonable mechanism for copper mining? A cursory search didn't turn up anyone doing this for copper, although it seems like established technology for Uranium.

 

edited to add: sorry if this seems like a non-sequitor, the Gunnison project Callinan is investing in is a plan to mine copper in-situ in Arizona...

[SharperDingaan]

This is the plan....

 

Very telling is that Glencore was making the offer to Rio. One has to think that Glencore had a pretty good idea that it would be rejected, & that RIO is now being isolated and herded. The next tap is not going to be so gentle - & probably why skippy keeps trying to hug BHP.

 

Best guess is that RIOs minority owner is going to own a lot more of it within 12 months, & that its going to come through a share exchange large enough to give them a board seat. It will probably come with C-Suite changes, & RIO appears to know it.

 

Pricing for market share is only rational if there is a sizeable bonus attached to it, & its the last one you expect to collect.

Management as agent, overriding shareholder as principal - for now.

 

SD

 

[Gamecock-YT]

Sculpin beat me to the punch on Callinan news. 777 royalties are large by Altius standards but not long life (2021 per Hudbay, the operator). The company looks to me like it is in a race to replace that revenue and exploration deals weren't cutting it. Callinan's balance sheet, if the company remains a going concern, could be a partner with Altius ($24 million in cash, no debt) on acquiring producing royalties. Altius could acquire 777 royalty or a portion of it or pick off some Callinan exploration deals. Given Altius' balance sheet, I don't see them buying any thing other than producing royalties. Some other party may have an interest in buying Callinan entirely, giving Altius an opportunity to cash out.

 

Callinan's interim CEO is a recent board addition (2013) and is founding partner of Boswell Capital Corporation and had a stint at Haywood Securities building out their Toronto office. A recent presentation that I can't find on the Callinan site now listed next to Altius' 6% ownership stake an "undisclosed" owner with a stake roughly on par with Altius'. Perhaps something material comes of this for Altius, perhaps not. I've got the bowl of popcorn out and will at least enjoy that.

 

I don't think Altius will be doing much buying until they get the debt down. $47mm due in 2016. But to your point, might be able to unload the shares.

[nostradamus]

They could offer to pay for callinan with als shares. That way they get access to the cash that callinan has and could use it to pay down their own debt. Could be worth putting in a lowball all share offer to see if it draws out any counter bidding.

[Guest Dazel]

SD,

 

Australia relies on iron ore as it is 10% of GDP it's not the royalty they are worried about it's the whole economy.

 

The big three will run all high cost china production out of business as they have likely told the Australian government.....the government accepted this policy in our opinion. Now the government is taking incredible heat because two companies BHP and RIO are on the verge of knocking out billions of economic activity at home. Fortescue is screaming bloody murder as they will "fall" if this continues because of their leverage....and Australia will fall into recession putting their banking system and housing bubble at risk.

They will flinch at some point which will spike iron ore prices...China knows this and is playing chicken as well....they will be forced to invest in lower cost over sea iron ore because they risk paying huge premiums when the "government" forced production cuts at RIO and BHP happen. Sounds like a pretty good plan the companies as well....as they will reap billions and billions in profits when they do cut production. It will take a little while but that is where we are headed....

[EliG]

Presentations at resource investors forum, Sept 22-23

 

Tayfun Eldem - Alderon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzvjpnUVQIQ

 

Chad Wells - Altius

[Guest Dazel]

I feel it is important to touch base with recent share price activity.

 

As I posted before we sent a letter to the board of Altius asking them to look at all strategic assets including the sale of the company as a whole. We have been impressed with the board and management's acceptance and openness to our communication. When this occurred the stock price was much higher than today. The prices being paid for transactions in the royalty market which are mostly streaming deals undervalue Altius greatly. While Altius market has been brutal over the last two months the major royalty companies have been very resilient we expect them to take advantage of these situations. Speculatively, it is very possible that Altius receives a "low ball" offer as their share price drop is much greater than those that would be bidders. This was not our intention when we began this process. The market has not cooperated with our original plan but we remain confident that it will.

 

Dazel

 

 

[nostradamus]

Dazel (and others)

 

What do you think of the idea of Altius making an all share take over offer for Callinan?

 

Advantages:

 

- It would create further diversification in the royalty portfolio for ALS, adding precious metals and copper.

- It would result in ALS getting access to a significant amount of Callinan cash (about $24m I think) and significant royalty income: both of which could be used to more rapidly pay down the ALS debt and initiate a dividend.

- ALS likely know Callinan very well (given current shareholding and management links), and so should have few problems integrating.

 

Disadvantages:

 

- ALS would be issuing shares to pay for the deal at a time that its own share price is depressed. However, ALS clearly thinks that Callinan shares are also depressed given its current investment, so there would not necessarily be such a dillution in upside to ALS shareholders (depending of course of the price paid).

- Investment banking fees.

 

Also, as I mentioned in an earlier post, if the approach is not successful, and it draws out a counter-bid, ALS could still win on the rise in value of its exising Callinan investment which it intends to monitise anway.

 

A win-win?

 

N.

 

 

[naboo]

Currently,  any idea to dilute ALS share is a bad idea. I prefer ALS pay off the debt and don't do anything aggressive.

 

Dazel (and others)

 

What do you think of the idea of Altius making an all share take over offer for Callinan?

 

Advantages:

 

- It would create further diversification in the royalty portfolio for ALS, adding precious metals and copper.

- It would result in ALS getting access to a significant amount of Callinan cash (about $24m I think) and significant royalty income: both of which could be used to more rapidly pay down the ALS debt and initiate a dividend.

- ALS likely know Callinan very well (given current shareholding and management links), and so should have few problems integrating.

 

Disadvantages:

 

- ALS would be issuing shares to pay for the deal at a time that its own share price is depressed. However, ALS clearly thinks that Callinan shares are also depressed given its current investment, so there would not necessarily be such a dillution in upside to ALS shareholders (depending of course of the price paid).

- Investment banking fees.

 

Also, as I mentioned in an earlier post, if the approach is not successful, and it draws out a counter-bid, ALS could still win on the rise in value of its exising Callinan investment which it intends to monitise anway.

 

A win-win?

 

N.

[Williams406]

The two things that most concern me regarding Altius:

a) A takeunder--getting bought out at a price less than what I think is fair value. If that takeunder is high enough, though, it would take away some of the sting.

 

b) Debt repayment obligations that are in excess of royalty cash flow within the next couple of years. Some asset(s) will need to be sold or debt refinanced.

 

Of the big 3 in the streaming royalty space I don't see Silver Wheaton or Franco swinging at Altius. Royal Gold, perhaps. Caveat: I don't know the big players that well and could be way off base. From a recent interview with Franco's CEO:

 

http://sprottglobal.com/thoughts/articles/david-harquail-and-the-gold-royalty-model/

 

"We’ve already deployed more than the $500 million we raised in August and we’ve still got a very full pipeline. The market tends to pay attention only to our larger deals but in the last five months we’ve acquired 35 different royalties and streams. Five of them are going to be contributing to our revenues and cash flows this year; other ones are longer-term. We’ve deployed almost a billion dollars in the last twelve months. If you’re not going to be buying gold assets right now, I don’t know when you would. It’s a very exciting time; we’re increasing our optionality to gold with over 85 percent of our revenues expected from precious metals next year and we’re looking to buy more assets."

 

If Franco is happier than a pig in mud pursuing their core priority of gold assets in the current environment, I'm not sure they expend the energy to mess with acquiring coal/potash assets. They are sophisticated and well-resourced and could no doubt execute some acquisition/debt re-finance/spin-off arrangement similar to what SD has thrown out there so their ending portfolio isn't "polluted" by coal and potash, but I don't see it unless Royal Gold does it. Which is fine with me, provided Altius can get my second concern squared away stat. Temporary disrespect from the market I can live with though it really smarts to not have rich currency or liquidity with which to snap up non-precious metals royalties in this environment. Looming debt obligations I don't care much for, however. When I read Harquail's comments above and see Royal Gold's substantial working capital, I continue to think Virginia probably ends up solving Altius' debt problem.

 

We shall see.

[TwoCitiesCapital]

Maybe I'm ignorant here, but is it unreasonable to expect that Altius wouldn't simply be able to roll the debt if it came to the choice of selling asets at depressed prices of issuing equity at depressed prices? I mean interest expense was 11.56M annualized from last quarter's figures and they've already paid back 10% of the principal borrowed so I would think they'd be able to rol, and sustain, the debt if necessary.

 

Is there really much risk here?

[hohi]

First of all - we all should be delighted to get the opportunity of buying Altius at these prices. Period. Every one who is in here for the long run knows that eventually the value will be seen by Mr. Market and if not we will still be receiving a nice dividend a few years out.

 

I must admit, that I did not expect the resource bear market to be this severe, but in my opinion we are clearly entering into a capitulation sell-off that will trigger the new leg-up. That being said I still see the same value in ALS as a few month back.

- I still see Kami being developed eventually, although probably 2-3 years later than expected

- Julienne Lake will be awarded to ALS/Partners and spun-out into a new vehicle

- the world will still need coal, electricity and potash, so I don't see our Cash Flow endangered

- after selling our stake in Virginia and probably Callinan our debt load will be very manageable with virtually no debt in just a few years

- ALS will pay a good dividend as soon as management thinks it is prudent

- in the long run, even CMB will be developed

 

Of course just my 2 cents, but this is why I love this bear market. Sure, I would have liked to buy lower from the beginning, but every value investor who did his DD should be delighted to see his investment fall 20, 30, 40% to be able to buy even more. This isn't some penny resource stock without any real intrinsic value. We own some of the best royalties on earth with management that cares about shareholders and good growth prospects ahead.

 

As for a take-over: I really don't see that coming right now. SLW is out of the question and FNV/RGLD have to many other opportunities in the gold space right now. Maybe there are some other players I don't know of, private or public, who knows...

 

I'll be buying more, that's for sure ;).

 

Have a great weekend guys!

[SharperDingaan]

Nothing has really changed re the business case. Current pricing activity largely just reflects positioning for quarter-end, & it will probably worsen over the near term.

 

We expect there will be an initial stink bid, & that it will be for cash. Thereafter, we would expect an all stock follow-up at something well above the original offer. If skippy were not in the top 3 we would be very surprized - as what you cannot squeeze out, you buy out.

 

The reality is that if ALS does not go to a take-under - it will be because Kami has obtained financing; and there is a very good chance that the financing may well be conditional upon a take-under being made. An attempt to smother the babe could go very badly, very quickly. So .... you are not going to bite unless you are willing to deal ... & have a healthy degree of flexibility. They don't need to win.

 

We suspect that we are close to an inflexion point.

 

SD

 

[Gamecock-YT]

This came in over the weekend:

 

Nucor in Talks With Cliffs Over Stake In Canadian Iron Ore Mine

Deal Would Allow Cliffs to More Than Double Production at the Bloom Lake Iron Ore Mine

 

U.S. steelmaker Nucor Corp. is in talks to invest in Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. ’s Bloom Lake iron-ore mine in Canada, according to a person familiar with the matter.

 

Two Japanese steel companies would also join the venture, the person said, with an eye to more than doubling production at the Quebec mine, which has troubled Cliffs as iron-ore prices have slumped badly.

 

The total capital expenditure required to boost output to 13.5 million tons a year would be $1.2 billion.

 

The three steelmaking partners, along with Wuhan Iron and Steel Co., an existing partner, would buy the iron ore produced at the mine.

 

The partnership would allow Cliffs to make the mine profitable despite the 40% drop in iron-ore prices in the past year, say executives.

 

Earlier this month, Cliffs took a $6 billion write-down, mostly related to Bloom Lake, leading to a third-quarter loss of $5.9 billion. Its share price has declined by more than 60% in the past year.

 

Cliffs is seeking to retool as it faces declining prices for its core product, iron ore used to make steel. The Cleveland-based company also in a transition after a board coup this year orchestrated by activist hedge fund Casablanca Capital LP, resulting in Lourenco Goncalves taking over as chief executive in August.

 

Like other miners around the world, especially in Brazil and Australia, Cliffs faces the challenge of running iron-ore mines in a market racked by oversupply and easing Chinese demand. Major miners BHP Billiton PLC, Rio Tinto Ltd. and Vale SA have already invested in higher production. The iron-ore market is expected to be oversupplied by over 300 million tons by 2018.

 

A veteran metals executives from Brazil, Mr. Goncalves wants to refocus Cliffs’s business around five iron-ore mines in Michigan and Minnesota, which sell to Midwestern steel mills that service the U.S. auto industry. The company has hired bankers to sell iron-ore assets in Australia, and is also looking to sell coal mines in West Virginia and Alabama.

 

Mr. Goncalves has said he is seeking partners to invest in Bloom Lake, which he has called the company’s “problem child.”

 

Cliffs acquired the controlling stake in the mine when it expanded in Canada by buying Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines Ltd. in 2011 for $4.9 billion, just around when iron-ore prices were peaking at over $185 a ton. The plan was to ship the ore to China. Now, because of oversupply and a softening in Chinese demand, prices are down at around $80.

 

Costs at Bloom Lake, including operating expenses, were $106.3 a ton in the third quarter. That division lost $165 million in the first nine months of 2014, after losing $52.3 million over the same period in 2013.

 

Mr. Goncalves told analysts Tuesday that if developed with partners, Bloom Lake could produce 13.5 million tons of “high-quality” iron ore a year at a cost “in the low $50 per ton range.” The iron ore, he added, “is in a different class, well above the typical iron ore shipped by the Australian majors to China.”

 

Nucor, based in Charlotte, N.C., has increased the amount of iron it uses in its furnaces, which typically rely on scrap. As iron-ore prices decline, iron in the form of pellets is becoming an attractive substitute for scrap. Nucor recently launched a new plant in Louisiana to produce iron pellets.

 

On Tuesday, Mr. Goncalves told analysts that Bloom Lake could produce the “ore of choice” for the same type of pellets Nucor needs.

 

Nucor CEO John Ferriola told analysts last week that he was “certainly” interested in “potential acquisitions and opportunities” to invest in more iron-ore production. “Is the environment today a whole lot better than it was four years ago? Absolutely,” he said.

[yader]

Sees iron ore at $50.  Been right for the past 5 or so years.

 

Again, three or four years ago I was saying commodity prices would fall a lot when iron was at $190. I said it would drop by 50% within in five years. Three years later I think it's around $120, but I think I was too conservative. I think it's got at least another 50% to go. I think it's got at least another 50% to go. In fact, I expect iron ore prices will drop below $50 and we'll see that with other metals too. So, the impact on the rest of the world depends on which side of the trade you are on. If you are a Brazil or a Chile or a Peru or an Australia, you are going to be really badly hurt by the Chinese adjustment. But most countries are importers of hard commodities so they'll actually do quite well out of the collapse—and I don’t think that's too strong of a word: the collapse in the price of hard commodities.

 

http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/michael-pettis/hard-commodities-collapse-chinese-slowdown

[abyli]

 

TSX : ALS

 

 

 

​

 

Altius' 17th Anniversary - A Message to Shareholders from President and CEO Brian Dalton

 

Monday, November 3, 2014

 

DEAR FELLOW SHAREHOLDER,

 

Friday was the 17th anniversary of Altius' initial public offering. This past year has certainly been one of the more eventful in our history.

 

Since our last such message to you, we have been working to fully integrate our recent acquisitions while also continuing to explore and pursue additional complementary opportunities. We are also working diligently to fulfill our promise of taking an aggressive approach to debt reduction to increase cash flows available for shareholder capital returns and liquidity for growth.

 

Altius has been built in a manner that allows it to weather cyclical swings in the various commodity sectors it pursues. While we are hardly immune to negative sector sentiment and short term valuation swings, as has been again witnessed over the past number of months, the various forms of option value that the business provides are built in a way that allows us to easily maintain our positions throughout cyclical swings.

 

Looking back over the year, the two most significant events impacting Altius were the acquisition of a large portfolio of production level royalties and a sudden collapse of iron ore prices and sector sentiment.

 

Beginning with the latter, Altius began making low-cost investments in the Labrador Trough iron-ore district more than a decade ago, during a period of similar negative sentiment towards the sector. This allowed us to assemble a large portfolio of assets simply for the cost of staking. Since then we have witnessed a very volatile market backdrop for the sector with sentiment ranging from horribly depressed to wildly exuberant.

 

Iron ore is the most widely traded metal commodity in the world. It is a mammoth scale sector that forms the backbone of operations for the largest of the world's mining houses. The exuberant parts of the past decade have stimulated the building of a considerable amount of new iron ore production from both incumbents and non-incumbents. This capacity increase has come into the market en masse this past year and put the iron ore market into a surplus supply situation. Prices have accordingly fallen to levels that mean that a very substantial amount of current global iron ore supply is losing money.

 

The recent weakness in our share price relates largely to a broader stock market's complete discounting of value for potential new iron ore projects.

 

Altius has structured its participation in the iron ore sector in such a way that its exposure is largely through royalty and other passive interests in new developments. We have not put ourselves in a position that requires substantial further investment in order to preserve the future promise and option value of our royalty interests. In other words we remain able to exercise patience as the very large iron ore market works to re-balance itself.

 

We cannot predict when positive sentiment will return to the iron-ore market and capital once again flows toward the sector. We can simply confirm that it will and that our interests will remain in place, without causing structural damage to your company, for the time that it takes.

 

On a more positive note, our recently acquired portfolio of royalty interests is performing well and as anticipated.

 

The electrical coal royalties relate to base-load and highly profitable power generation in Alberta and have essentially no exposure to the thermal coal market pricing environment. The utilities that use the coal from which we receive royalties buy it for the combined price of extraction and royalty costs, which in combination are a fraction of the thermal coal market price.

 

One development we are keenly following within the electrical coal sector is recent commissioning of SaskPower's Boundary Dam project. This project utilizes carbon capture and utilization technologies that are reportedly demonstrating competitive economics within the context of other types of electrical generation. Should commercially competitive carbon capture prove itself we believe that we will be one of the major beneficiaries. This is because of our extensive portfolio of undeveloped coal resources. The potential option value for our shareholders is enormous because while the risk capital burdens associated with demonstrating commercial viability for coal carbon capture are for others, the benefits of such a breakthrough will accrue to us without cost.

 

Our potash royalty portfolio is also performing well and as expected. While potash prices have remained relatively flat, there has been growth in terms of global volume demand. Our potash royalties reflect a combination of both price and volume.

 

One of the key attractions to these assets for us at the time of acquisition was the potential for increasing production volumes over time, given the generally very large resource inventories that relate to the operations. In fact, many billions of dollars in capital investments are largely complete at the various operations and these have had the effect of increasing available production capacity by more than a third. As royalty holders we have no exposure to the capital costs that have created this capacity increase related option value but we stand as full potential beneficiaries.

 

In closing, we operate within a wildly cyclical, yet purely fundamental, sector that is characterized by alternating bouts of excitement and gloom. The most interesting part of managing within a sector that is so cyclically measured, is figuring out how best to make the fullness of the cycle work towards the goals being sought. We have seen all of this before, several times in fact, and believe that our long-term and contrarian management philosophy remains as sound as ever.

 

Sincerely,

 

Brian Dalton, President and CEO,

on behalf of the management and Board of Directors of Altius Minerals Corporation

 

For additional information or general questions at any time please contact:

 

Chad Wells

VP Corporate Development

 

Toll Free: 1-877-576-2209

Email: cwells@altiusminerals.com

Website: www.altiusminerals.com

 

 

​

 

 

  FORWARD   TWEET

Altius

P.O. Box 8263, Station "A"

St. John’s, NL, Canada

A1B 3N4

 

1-877-576-2209

info@altiusminerals.com

www.altiusminerals.com

 

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[beerbaron]

One development we are keenly following within the electrical coal sector is recent commissioning of SaskPower's Boundary Dam project. This project utilizes carbon capture and utilization technologies that are reportedly demonstrating competitive economics within the context of other types of electrical generation. Should commercially competitive carbon capture prove itself we believe that we will be one of the major beneficiaries. This is because of our extensive portfolio of undeveloped coal resources. The potential option value for our shareholders is enormous because while the risk capital burdens associated with demonstrating commercial viability for coal carbon capture are for others, the benefits of such a breakthrough will accrue to us without cost.

 

Can someone elaborate on the above comment. How is carbon trapping suppose to help their coal mining royalty?

 

BeerBaron

[ItsAValueTrap]

Here's the Wikipedia entry on the Boundary Dam Power stations, which is a coal power plant:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_Dam_Power_Station

 

Carbon capture should reduce the environmental impact, which might reduce fears about global warming.

[beerbaron]

Here's the Wikipedia entry on the Boundary Dam Power stations, which is a coal power plant:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_Dam_Power_Station

 

Carbon capture should reduce the environmental impact, which might reduce fears about global warming.

 

So let me get this straight the government invested 240M to get 1M Tons trapped. Canada generates 560M Tons of CO2 per year or about 0.17% per year. Yeah my fears of global warming are all gone now.

 

BeerBaron

[bizaro86]

Here's the Wikipedia entry on the Boundary Dam Power stations, which is a coal power plant:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_Dam_Power_Station

 

Carbon capture should reduce the environmental impact, which might reduce fears about global warming.

 

So let me get this straight the government invested 240M to get 1M Tons trapped. Canada generates 560M Tons of CO2 per year or about 0.17% per year. Yeah my fears of global warming are all gone now.

 

BeerBaron

 

It won't fix climate change, and I doubt  ALS management car about that. But it might make new coal plants viable from a regulatory point of view. That would dramatically extend the life of their coal royalties, as the best place to build a new coal plant is next to an old one, and next to an existing low cost coal mine.

[nostradamus]

Don't think this has been posted to the board yet:

 

http://minesvirginia.com/en/index.php/press-en/virginia-outlines-a-high-grade-zone-in-the-mustang-vein-at-wabamisk-and-new-auriferous-targets-at-kan2014-10-23/

 

It contains the following paragraph on the joint venture exploration work between Virginia and Altius:

 

KAN PROPERTY During the summer, Virginia was also quite active in Nunavik where it conducted, with its partner Altius Minerals Corporation (“Altius”), prospecting, mapping soil sampling (B horizon) on the Kan property, which is a vast gold and base-metal exploration project covering over 30,000 hectares in the Labrador Through, 85 kilometres southwest of Kuujjuaq. Prospecting focussed mainly on the historical B-soil anomalies from previous detailed geochemical surveys. Most of these anomalies were unexplained at surface and only limited work was done over these anomalies. Detailed work that consisted in geological mapping, structural study and channelling was carried out on the historical showings (Pump Pad Ridge, Ferricrete, KTR1 and Pyrite Falls). Six new gold showings were discovered, during the summer, in the Kan area. They consist mainly of centimetric to decimetric, quartz-vein stockworks and of sulfurized zones within a folded unit of silicate-carbonate iron formation. The most interesting one is located 100 metres to the east of the Pump Pad Ridge showing. It consists of six different quartz veins spread over a radius of 8 metres within a weathered iron formation. These veins yielded interesting values in selected samples with 79.5 g/t, 11.8 g/t, 6.64 g/t, 4.75 g/t and 1.95 g/t Au. Numerous visible gold specks were observed on two of these veins. This sector is considered very promising because of the high density of veins and its proximity to the Pump Pad Ridge occurrence. The five other showings discovered within a radius of 750 metres in the Kan area (mainly centimetric to decimetric quartz veins) yielded values varying between 3.82 g/t Au and 17.8 g/t Au. Another similar gold showing grading 8.1 g/t Au in a selected sample was also discovered 650 metres south of the Ferricrete showing A total of 499 B-soil samples were taken during the recent campaign. This survey confirmed the location of some historical soil anomalies but also delimited very interesting anomalies in the Pump Pad Ridge and Ferricrete areas. These new anomalies, reaching up to 12.26 g/t Au, remain totally unexplained and are excellent targets for further work. Virginia and its partner Altius are quite satisfied with these results, which demonstrate the excellent gold potential of the Kan project. Mechanical stripping is likely to be carried in the summer of 2015 to test the potential of the gold showings and the soil anomalies discovered in 2014. Work has been carried out by the personnel of Virginia Mines, under the supervision of Mr. Paul Archer, professional engineer geologist. Mr. Archer is a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has more than 30 years of experience in exploration. He read and approved the contents of this press release.

[Guest Dazel]

 

 

Altius coal assets got a major boost from the GOP victory last night....their contrarian call On coal and Potash are holding up extremely well especially in comparison to the majors who will need to replace their lost royalty revenue to maintain their growth profiles because of the drop in their commodity prices...

 

[Williams406]

 

 

Altius coal assets got a major boost from the GOP victory last night....their contrarian call On coal and Potash are holding up extremely well especially in comparison to the majors who will need to replace their lost royalty revenue to maintain their growth profiles because of the drop in their commodity prices...

 

The durability and longevity of the coal and potash royalties have impressed me more and more as I look at them and compare with royalties at other companies. The coal royalties may lack the upside optionality of royalties linked to commodity prices, but taken as a source of foundational revenue for Altius for what I hope is a long time, they're solid. Those potash royalties will outlive me using standard actuarial assumptions...

[Guest Dazel]

Williams406,

 

You are correct in my mind...the average royalty term of their portfolio is a stagerring 39 years. While the market does not seem to care as we all are measuring everything in days or weeks now...for the major royalty companies they would add permanent revenue streams in acquiring Altius. That type of royalty is almost impossible to find and buy at a reasonable price. When you compare these to long term 30 year bonds at 3%....they are dirt cheap. No one wants to look that far out...of course...but adding permanent revenue to the valuations of the majors is enticing. They are checking around investment banks with interest in Altius but it is hard to say whether we will get a sufficient offer as they are being opportunistic.