I don’t have anything new or noteworthy to share about Altius Minerals today, but I have promised to update you on my portfolio as changes are made, so I need to let you know that I increased my Altius holdings by about 30% this morning when the shares dipped near $9.50.  I continue to have another buy order in to trigger if the shares drop substantially further (another 10%+), an order I’ll keep in place for at least three days since I’m mentioning it here — and will probably hold until (if) it triggers unless I see the underlying value of the company falling for some unexpected reason. As of the last information I saw, they still have about $6.75 per share in cash and liquid investments, one large royalty that should remain lucrative for many years (Voisey’s Bay, currently marred by a long labor impasse), and several joint ventures (Rambler, Kamistaitussett, Aurora Energy) and royalties on yet-to-be-built mines (Viking Gold, Labrador Iron Ore) that should provide low-risk income if they pan out, along with a dozen or so very early stage exploration targets and joint venture opportunities that are awaiting partners. Few of those partners and joint ventures are equity positions in publicly traded companies, so they’re generally tough to value (you can assign a specific value to Rambler Metals — Altius holds 12 million shares, worth about $6 million currently) The question of what premium to pay over and above their cash on hand is answered only by guessing at the future value of those projects, the value of the cash flow from existing royalties, and the value of the management team that will be investing their cash hoard in new opportunities — $9.60 was the upper limit for me for buying shares right now, and I think that’s still probably a little bit steep, thanks to the increased attention Altius has been getting.

And yes, nothing of significance has happened with Altius since I last wrote about them a month ago.  My last purchase prior to today was in early December.

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