Altius Executes Telkwa Coal Property Agreement With Australian Venture
ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR--(Marketwired - Sep 22, 2014) - Altius Minerals Corporation (ALS.TO) is pleased to announce that it has entered into an option and royalty agreement concerning its Telkwa coal project (the "Project") with a private company, Telkwa Coal Ltd. ("TCL"), being funded out of Australia. Altius acquired the Project in May of this year as part of its acquisition of the Carbon Development Partnership ("CDP").
The terms of the agreement allow TCL a 48-month period to earn a 90% project interest subject to retention by Altius of a 10% project interest and an up to 1.5% price-based sliding-scale gross revenue royalty. To earn its interest, TCL must make milestone payments totaling $10 million in cash (and/or common stock at Altius' discretion if a public company is formed). Within 6 months of execution of this agreement TCL will pay Altius $500,000 and prepare a NI 43-101 compliant resource statement for the Project. The final milestone hurdle requires a positive development decision. Altius has tag-along rights with respect to its project interest and any common share payments received.
The 13,000 hectare Project is located near Smithers, BC, approximately five kilometres from the CN main rail line and then 320 kilometres by rail to port facilities at Prince Rupert, BC. The project has seen considerable past exploration and evaluation work and hosts historical estimated (NI 43-101 non-compliant) coal resources of 58.9 million tonnes (measured and indicated) and 27.8 million tonnes (inferred), including potential export thermal products and semi-soft coking coal, ranging in rank from high volatile A bituminous to semi-anthracite (a qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as a current resource estimate and Altius is not treating the historical estimate as a current resource estimate;source: Sherritt 2013 AIF)
Altius CEO Brian Dalton commented on the Telkwa deal by saying: "We acquired CDP for its existing royalty revenue, but more particularly for its extensive portfolio of undeveloped coal and potash resource lands. This represents the first property option and royalty agreement stemming from this portfolio and is consistent with our strategy of growing our long-term base of royalties through the conversion of project interests to royalties. Telkwa is one of a great number of advanced projects that we acquired through CDP and we are actively pursuing several other such agreements."
Lawrence Winter, Ph.D., P.Geo., Vice‐President of Exploration for Altius, is the qualified person as defined by NI 43-101 guidelines responsible for the technical data presented herein and has reviewed and approved this release.
About Altius
Altius is diversified minerals royalty company with royalty interests in 12 producing mines located in Canada. The royalty interests include mining operations that produce thermal (electrical) and metallurgical coal, potash, nickel, copper and cobalt. Altius holds other significant pre-development stage royalty and its project generation pipeline contains a diversified portfolio of exploration stage projects and royalties, many of which are being advanced through various partner-funding arrangements.
Altius has also built a portfolio of directly and indirectly held junior resource investments, including a ~25% shareholding in Alderon (ADV.TO), an ~8% shareholding in Virginia Mines Inc. (VGQ.TO), and a ~5.9% shareholding in Callinan Royalties Corporation (TSX VENTURE:CAA).
Altius has 32,238,821 shares issued and outstanding that are listed on Canada's Toronto Stock Exchange. It is a member of both the S&P/TSX Small Cap and S&P/TSX Global Mining Indices.
