Altius Reports 2021 Attributable Royalty Revenue of $83.9M and Adjusted Earnings (1,2) of $32.0M
TS X: ALS | OTCQX: ATUSF Altiu s Minerals Corporation
March 9, 2022 | St. John’s, Newfoundland
Altius Reports 2021 Attributable Royalty Revenue of $83.9M and Adjusted Earnings (1,2) of
$32.0M
Altius Minerals Corporation (TSX: ALS; OTCQX: ATUSF) (“Altius” or the “Corporation”)
reports full year revenue of $81.7 million compared to $60.0 million for 2020, and $22.6 million for
the fourth quarter compared to $21.5 million for the same period in 2020.
Full year 2021 attributable royalty revenue(1,2), adjusted for joint venture revenue, of $83.9 million
($2.03 per share(1,2)) was 24% higher than the $67.5 million ($1.62 per share) reported for 2020.
Fourth quarter 2021 attributable royalty revenue(1,2) of $23.5 million ($0.57 per share) compares
to $22 million ($0.53 per share) during Q4, 2020. These figures represent annual and quarterly
revenue records for the Corporation, mainly based upon higher realized commodity prices.
Adjusted EBITDA(1,2) of $67 million or $1.62 per share (1,2) during 2021 increased by 27% as
compared to $52.8 million or $1.27 per share during the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth
quarter was $17.7 million or $0.43 per share, which compares to adjusted EBITDA of $17.6 million
in Q4 2020. The adjusted EBITDA margin in 2021 was 80% versus 78% last year. The increase
in adjusted EBITDA for the year ended December 31, 2021 follows the increase in attributable
revenue but was partially offset by an increase in expenses w ithin the Renewable Royalties
segment primarily due to public company related costs. The Mineral Royalties segment had an
EBITDA margin of 87% for the current year compared to 86% in the prior year.
On a full year basis, adjusted operating cash flow (1,2) of $49.4 million or $1.19 per share (1,2)
compares to $47.5 million or $1.14 per share last year. Adjusted operating cash flow during 2020
benefitted from lower cash income taxes paid due to flexibility in payment terms granted by tax
authorities due to Cov id-19 related economic concerns. Adjusted operating cash flow for the
quarter was $15.9 million or $0.38 per share, which compares to adjusted operating cash flow of
$13.5 million in Q4 2020.
Adjusted operating cash flow does not include net cash proceeds (sales minus new investments)
of $16.1 million during 2021 ($6.7 million during 2020) related to the Corporation’s Project
Generation junior mining equities portfolio, with these recorded as other comprehensive earnings
in the Corporation’s financial statements.
Net earnings of $38.3 million or $0.97 per share for 2021 compares to a net loss of ($26.2 million)
or ($0.65 per share) in 2020. Adjusted net earnings per share (1,2) of $0.77 in 2021 compares to
adjusted net earnings per share of $0.36 per share in 2020. The prior year results were negatively
affected by coal royalty impairments. Net earnings during the fourth quarter were $2.8 million or
$0.07 per share, and $0. 19 per share on an adjusted basis . This compares to net earnings of
$12.4 million or $0.30 per share, and on an adjusted basis $0.18 per share in Q4 2020. The main
adjusting items in the fourth quarter this year are a $6.0 million impairment charge ($0.15 per
share) related to the 777 royalty, which is expected to cease operations in mid 2022. Other
adjusting items include unrealized losse s on derivatives related to the revaluation of share
purchase warrants on junior mining equities compared to unrealized gains last year and lower
gains related to the receipt of common shares in exchange for the transfer of several mineral
properties year over year.
TS X: ALS | OTCQX: ATUSF Altiu s Minerals Corporation
In T ho usands o f C anadian D o llars
Adjus te d N e t Earning s D e ce mbe r 31 , 2021 D e ce mbe r 31 , 2020
N et earni ngs attri butabl e to com m on 2,801$ 1 2,422$
Addback (deduct):
Unreal i zed (gai n) l os s on fai r val ue adj us tm ent of deri vati ves 1 ,1 41 (1 ,61 3)
Forei gn exchange (gai n) l os s (1 45) (1 ,622)
I m pai rm ent of royal ty i nteres t and goodw i l l 6,031 530
Real i zed gai n on di s pos al of deri vati ves (1 ,675) -
Gai n on di s pos al of m i neral property (495) (2,997)
(Gai n) l os s on equi ty i nves tm ents and j oi nt ventures (1 ) - (1 ,21 6)
Tax i m pact 273 1 ,908
Adj us ted net earni ngs 7,931$ 7,41 2$
Adj us ted net earni ngs per s hare 0.1 9$ 0.1 8$
Thre e months e nde d
(1) Includes the following items from the consolidated statement of net earnings (loss): (loss) earnings from joint ventures, gain on loss of control of
subsidiary, dilution gain on issuance of shares by an associate and joint venture, and gain on reclassification of an associate.
Portfolio Performance
The following tables summarize the financial results and attributable revenue for the four quarters
of 2021 along with the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020:
Summary of attributable royalty revenue
(in thousands of Canadian dollars) YE 2021 Q4 2021 Q3 2021 Q2 2021 Q1 2021 YE 2020
Base and battery metals 36,566$ 11,329$ 8,216$ 9,394$ 7,627$ 26,861$
Potash 19,283 6,907 3,788 4,516 4,072 14,598
Iron ore (1) 17,243 3,305 6,035 5,029 2,874 8,765
Thermal (electrical) coal 9,049 1,421 2,562 2,140 2,926 13,696
Metallurgical coal 58 - - - 58 1,612
Other royalties and interest 1,731 494 207 827 203 1,970
Attributable royalty revenue 83,930$ 23,456$ 20,808$ 21,906$ 17,760$ 67,502$
See non-GAAP financial measures section of our M D&A for definition and reconciliation of attributable royalty revenue
(1)
Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corporation dividends received
Base and battery metals was the largest contributor to Q4 2021 revenue, providing $11.3 million.
Revenue of $36.6 million for the year is up 36% over the $26.9 million reported in 2020, largely
reflecting higher realized prices.
Chapada copper production was higher year over year with record mill throughput but copper
delivered under the stream agreement was lo wer in 2021 due to timing of sales. Operator
guidance for 2022 is targeting copper production of 53,000 – 58,000 tonnes, which compares to
52,000 tonnes produced in 2021.
Lundin Mining recently commented that Chapada expansion studies are ongoing, includin g
evaluation of a scenario which would potentially increase annual processing capacity to 32 MT
per annum from the current 24 MT per annum, while it also reported on a new high-grade
discovery to the north of the current mining area and on lands that are subject to the Corporation’s
TS X: ALS | OTCQX: ATUSF Altiu s Minerals Corporation
copper stream agreement. For more information, please see Altius press release dated February
24, 2022. Altius Discovery Update
Copper and zinc production at 777 was comparable to the prior year period. The mine is
anticipated to close in June of this year . Operator Hudbay Mining has recently stated that it is
evaluating the potential for reprocessing historic tailings from the region.
Voisey’s Bay production was higher on a comparable year over year basis with the
commencement of production from the Reid Brook underground nickel-copper-cobalt deposit.
Production from the Eastern Deeps deposit is targeted to commence in the second half of 2022.
Finished production from Voisey’s Bay sourced ore during the fourth quarter was marginally lower
compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 as a result of an annual maintenance shutdown that
impacted the Long Harbour processing facility.
Adventus Mining Corporation published a positive feasibility study for its copper and gold rich El
Domo deposit in Ecuador during the year and announced that it entered into a definitive precious
metals purchase agreement with Wheaton Precious Metals International Ltd., a wholly -owned
subsidiary of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp., and a binding offtake financing agreement with
Trafigura Pte Ltd, for a combined total of US$235.5 million in proceeds to advance and, following
a construction decision, build the Curipamba Project.
Potash royalty revenue of $6.9 million in Q4 2021 and $19.3 million for the year is up 129% and
32% from the comparable periods last year. Potash prices increased by more than 100% during
the course of the year and the increases have continued throughout the fourth quarter, reaching
multi-year highs, with these prices expected to be reflected in realized prices during the coming
quarters. Realized prices continued to demonstrate an approximately 3 month time lag relative to
quoted market prices in various agricultural regions. Pricing benefits were offset by slightly lower
annual attributable production volumes as a result of the mid-year closure of the K1 and K2 mining
areas of the Esterhazy mine due to increased water inflows, as well as a longer than usual period
of scheduled maintenance at Rocanville.
Mosaic, the operator of the Esterhazy mine, has commented that it continues to successfully ramp
up production capacity from the new Esterhazy K3 mining area and that it expects accordingly to
be in a position to replace lost K1 and K2 production capacities by March of 2022. Nutrien has
indicated that it expects to increase production from its portfolio of mines to between 13.7 and
14.3 million to nnes relative to 2021 levels of 13.6 million tonnes, with the potential to further
increase production to address potential supply shortfalls related to sanctions and other
geopolitical constraints. It has not provided guidance on an individual mine basis and it should be
noted that the Corporation’s royalties do not cover the entirety of Nutrien’s portfolio of mines and
also that percentage royalty interests vary by mine.
Iron ore royalty revenue of $3.3 million was received in Q4 2021, while full year revenue was
$17.2 million ($8.8 million in 2020). The increase for the year was the result of significantly higher
average benchmark prices and quality premiums, particularly during the first half of the year.
Prices subsided from multi-year highs during much of the second half of the year before beginning
to rebound in December and thus far into the new year. The higher average realized prices were
partially offset by lower year over year production volumes at Iron Ore Company of Canada
(“IOC”) due to reduced labour and mechanical availabilities. Full year guidance for 2022 for IOC's
saleable production tonnage is 17.0 to 18.7 million tonnes, which compares to 16.5 million tonnes
in 2021. The Corporation’s current iron ore revenue stems from the pass-through of royalties and
equity dividends paid by the Rio Tinto controlled IOC to Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corp
(“LIORC”), of which the Corporation is a significant shareholder.
TS X: ALS | OTCQX: ATUSF Altiu s Minerals Corporation
Champion Iron Ore (“Champion”) has stated a plan to provide results of a rescoping of the Kami
Project in Labrador in the second half of 2022. It has indicated that a key objective of the studies
is to determine the potential to produce an ultra-low impurity iron ore concentrate product. Altius
holds a 3% gross sales royalty related to the Kami Project.
Thermal coal royalty revenue of $1.4 million was received in Q4 2021, while full year revenue of
$9.0 million was down 34% from 2020 revenue of $13.7 million as the Sheerness power plant
was converted from coal to gas firing and as one of the three generating units at Genesee suffered
unplanned outages for most of the third and fourth quarter before being brought back to full service
in December.
Altius Renewable Royalties (“ARR”) (ARR: TSX) released its Q4 2021 and year end results on
March 3, 2021 ARR 2021 Financial Results . The Corporation continues to hold 59% of the
common shares of ARR, which completed its initial public offering in the first quarter of 2021.
On December 31, 2021 Apex Clean Energy (“Apex”) exercised a change of control-based option
to redeem the remaining residual royalty financing provided by G reat Bay Renewables, LLC
(“GBR”), a 50/50 joint venture between ARR and certain funds managed by affiliates of Apollo
Global Management, Inc. The option exercise followed the sale of a majority interest in Apex to
Ares Capital. GBR retained three royalties earned prior to the sale: the 195 MW Jayhawk wind
project, the 300 MW El Sauz wind project, and a 500 MW undisclosed wind project. The
redemption consideration, including a buyout premium, was approximately US$70 million,
US$41.7M of which was a cash payment with the remainder representing an estimated
provisional value ascribed to the retained royalties.
ARR, through GBR, has now established royalties on 16 projects that collectively represent
approximately 3,510 MW of solar and wind capacity. Six projects are now operating and producing
cash flow, enabling GBR to anticipate its first year of positive cash flow in 2022. ARR continues
to advance due diligence investigations and negotiations with several other renewable energy
operators and developers relating to additional potential royalty financing transactions.
Silicon Project Gold Royalty: On February 22, 2022 AngloGold Ashanti reported a maiden
inferred resource at its Silicon project of 120.44 million tonnes @ 0.87g/t for a total of 3.4 million
ounces of gold. For more information, please see Altius release dated February 24, 2022. Altius
Discovery Update
Lithium Royalty Corporation, of which Altius is a co-founding 12.6% shareholder, continued to
build out its portfolio with the total number of project royalties acquired since inception in 2018
amounting to 17. These include a tonnage based royalty on Allkem’s producing Mt. Cattlin Mine
in Australia and gross royalties on each of Zijin Mining’s Tres Quebradas project in Argentina,
Sigma Lithium’s Groto do Cirilo project in Brazil and Core Lithium’s Finniss project in Australia.
During the y ear ended December 2021, Zijin Mining acquired Tres Quebradas by way of its
acquisition of Neo Lithium and each of Sigma and Core announced project construction decisions.
Additional information on the Corporation’s results of operations and developments in its Project
Generation division are included in the Corporation’s MD&A and Financial Statements which were
filed on SEDAR today and are also available on the Corporation’ s website at
www.altiusminerals.com.
Capital Allocation Summary
TS X: ALS | OTCQX: ATUSF Altiu s Minerals Corporation
The Corporation’s capital allocation priorities are linked to its strategy of creating per share value
growth through a portfolio of assets that relate to long life, high margin operations while providing
growing shareholder capital returns.
During the year, the Corporation made scheduled debt repayments of $17 million, preferred share
distributions of $5 million and paid cash dividends of $9.3 million following a 40% increase in its
quarterly dividend to $0.07 cents that was announced at the end of the second quarter.
The Corporation also expended $ 12.9 million in the repurchase and cancellation of 821,100
shares (approximately 2% of outstanding) under its Normal Course Issuer Bid during the year.
Liquidity
Cash and cash equivalents at December 31, 2021 were $100.0 million, compared to $21.8 million
at the end of 2020 . Cash, excluding $62.6 million held by ARR, was $37.4 million. The value of
publicly traded Project Generation business equity holdings was $ 55.5 million at December 31,
2021. The market value of LIORC shares was $107.9 million and the market value of ARR shares
including the in the money value of share purchase warrants was $193.5 million.
On August 9, 2021, the Corporation amended its credit facility to increase the available credit
from $160 million to $225 million and to extend the term from June 2023 to August 2025.
Mandatory principal repayments of the term debt under the new facility have also been reduced
to $2 million per quarter from $5 million per quarter previously. The amount of debt outstanding
at year end was $117 million and the Corporation made a principal repayment of $2 million in
January 2022.
Dividend Declaration
The Corporation’s board of directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.07 per share. The
current quarterly dividend is payable to all shareholders of record at the close of business on
March 18, 2022.The dividend is expected to be paid on or about March 31, 2022.
This dividend is eligible for payment in common shares under the Dividend Reinvestment Plan
(DRIP) announced by press release May 20, 2020, and available to shareholders who are
Canadian residents or residents of countries outside the United States.
In order to be eligible to participate in respect of the March 31, 2022 dividend, non-registered
shareholders must provide instruction to their brokerage and registered shareholders must
provide completed enrollment forms to the transfer agent by March 11, 2022, five business days
prior to record date. Stock market purchases made under the DRIP for the March 31, 2022
payment will be satisfied by issuance from treasury at the 5 day volume weighted average price
ending at the close of trading the day before payment date. Shareholders who have already
provided instruction to be enrolled earlier this year will continue to be enrolled unless they direct
otherwise. For more informat ion, please see http://www.altiusminerals.com/dividend-
reinvestment-plan. Participation in the DRIP is optional and will not impact any cash dividends
payable to shareholders who do not elect to participate in the DRIP. The declaration, timing and
payment of future dividends will largely depend on the Corporation’s financial results as well as
other factors. Dividends paid by Altius on its common shares are eligible dividends for Canadian
income tax purposes unless otherwise stated.
TS X: ALS | OTCQX: ATUSF Altiu s Minerals Corporation
Non GAAP Financial Measures
1. Management uses the following non -GAAP financial measures: attributable revenue,
attributable royalty revenue, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization (adjusted EBITDA), adjusted operating cash flow and adjusted net earnings
(loss).
2. Management uses these measures to monitor the financial performance of the Corporation
and its operating segments and believes these measures enable investors and analysts to
compare the Corporation’s financial performance with its competitors and/or evaluate the
results of its underlying business. These measures are intended to provide additional
information, not to replace International Financial Rep orting Standards (IFRS) measures,
and do not have a standard definition under IFRS and should not be considered in isolation
or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. As
these measures do not have a standardized meani ng, they may not be comparable to
similar measures provided by other companies. Further information on the composition and
usefulness of each non -GAAP financial measure, including reconciliation to their most
directly comparable IFRS measures, is included in the non -GAAP financial measures
section of our MD&A.
Fourth Quarter 2021 Financial Results Conference Call and Webcast Details
Date: March 10, 2022
Time: 9:00 AM ET
Toll Free Dial-In Number: +1(866) 521-4909
International Dial-In Number: +1(647) 427-2311
Conference Call Title and ID: Altius Q4 2021 Results, ID 6387826
Webcast Link: Q4 2021 Financial Results
About Altius
Altius’s strategy is to create per share growth through a diversified portfolio of royalty assets that relate to
long life, high margin operations. This strategy further provides shareholders with exposures that are well
aligned with sustainability -related global growth trends including the electricity generation transition from
fossil fuel to renewables, transportation electrification, reduced emissions from steelmaking and increasing
agricultural yield requirements. These macro-trends each hold the potential to cause increased demand for
many of Altius’s commodity exposures including copper, renewable based electricity, several key battery
metals (lithium, nickel and cobalt), clean iron ore, and potash. In addition, Altius runs a successful Project
Generation business that originates mineral projects for sale to developers in exchange for equity positions
and royalties. Altius has 41,178,833 common shares issued and outstanding that are listed on Canada’s
Toronto Stock Exchange. It is included in each of the S&P/TSX Small Cap, the S&P/TSX Global Mining,
and the S&P/TSX Canadian Dividend Aristocrats indices
TS X: ALS | OTCQX: ATUSF Altiu s Minerals Corporation
Forward-looking information
This news release contains forward ‐looking information. The statements are based on reasonable
assumptions and expectations of management and Altius provides no assurance that actual events will
meet management's expectations. In certain cases, forward ‐looking information may be identified by such
terms as "anticipates", "believes", "could", "estimates", "expects", "may", "shall", "will", or "would". Although
Altius believes the expectations expressed in such forward ‐looking statements are based on reasonable
assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or
developments may differ materially from those projected. Readers should not place undue reliance on
forward-looking information. Altius does not undertake to update any forward-looking information contained
herein except in accordance with securities regulation.
For further information, please contact:
Flora Wood
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 1.877.576.2209
Direct: +1(416)346.9020
Ben Lewis
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 1.877.576.2209