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Altius Minerals (TSX: ALS) says it has won a partial arbitration ruling that could give the company expanded royalty rights over the Silicon gold district of Nevada. Shares of Altius rose on the arbitration decision.
On Friday, the company announced an arbitration tribunal determined that the lands subject to its 2015 royalty agreement with AngloGold Ashanti not only include the entire 26.6 km2 base area of interest as described in the agreement, but also certain contiguous/adjacent lands that extend beyond the area.
The royal agreement currently grants Altius a 1.5% net smelter return on the Silicon project located in Nye county, consisting of two discoveries made by AngloGold (Silicon and Merlin deposits) since it took over the project in 2017.
The project has an initial resource of 3.37 million oz. in the inferred category (120.44 million tonnes at 0.87 g/t gold) for the oxide portion of the Silicon deposit alone. Exploration by AngloGold has also indicated significant oxide ore bodies existing at the Merlin deposit.
Altius currently believes that under partial award, the known extents of the Silicon and Merlin deposits, based on information released to date by AngloGold, including essentially all of the southernmost extension of the Merlin deposit beyond the base area of interest, would be subject to its royalty.
Certain lands, however, that were acquired by AngloGold from third party entities such as Coeur Mining and Corvus Gold, with a staking date prior to the date of the royalty agreement, would be excluded from the royalty. These areas host several historically identified mineralized areas including the North Bullfrog and Motherlode areas being developed by AngloGold.
Raymond James, in an investor note issued Friday, said this arbitration decision is positive for Altius as it “provides more clarity on the royalty lands and is more than just the base royalty”.
The bank also acknowledged that the full extent of the exploration optionality of the royalty remains unknown, and the exclusion of Bullfrog — expected to be the first of AngloGold’s Nevada operations to enter production — reduces the potential for nearer-term cash flow to Altius.
The parties now have 60 days to submit to the tribunal a detailed list of the various individual claim units believed to be subject to the royalty. Should any issues exist between them in specifying the claims subject to the royalty, then the tribunal will decide them and subsequently issue its final award.
Shares of Altius Minerals rose 2.6% to a 52-week high of C$27.75 by 11:25 a.m. ET Friday, giving the royalty company a market capitalization of C$1.3 billion ($890 million).
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