RE: RE: Millrock updateAltius owns about 13.6% of Millrock, which is about a 56 million dollar company. They've made a nice chunk of change on their investment but I think they'll let it ride for a while longer. The investment is very small compared to Altius' ~200 million in cash and liquid investments. I think they're looking for investment opportunities in very early stage mineral companies (25 million allocated to Paul Van Eeden co-venture company to invest in minors like Miranda Gold). Millrock fits the profile of what Altius is trying to invest in, the segment of the market where it sees value.
The Pebble mine may be under attack but Northern Dynasty, which owns the mine, has run up from a penny stock to billions in market cap. So there's a lot of opportunity for growth in Millrock's share price if they can make a discovery.
Altius monetized its 6 million dollar Rambler equity stake to reduce risk in a situation where they didn't see the monster upside potential. I think Rambler's gold-streaming deal with Sandstorm Resources took away its home run potential.
It's going to be very, very interesting to see what management's going to do with all that cash. In the past they've had inclinations to get into contrarian energy plays (the NLRC refinery project, the Lower Churchill hydro-electric project, the oil shale project) to diversify away from mineral exploration. I could imagine them buying a royalty on a natural gas producer or a hydroelectric producer. The values in those markets are much cheaper than the values in precious metals or base metals.