Labrador Iron OreThere's a new page and brochure on the Altius website about 4 new areas for iron ore exploration and available for joint venture in the Labrador Trough: Shefferville, Astray, Menihek and Grenville.
These are huge land positions claimed in Altius' staking frenzy in late 2010, and are in addition to the existing iron ore claims at Snelgrove Lake and Julienne Lake and the joint venture with Rio Tinto. All of these claims are close to railways, electricity, labor and infrastructure--which, if we look at Bloom Lake and Kami, are absolutely essential for an economic ore body. Bloom Lake and Kami will each cost just 600 to 800 million for building mine facilties, connection to existing railways and port facilities. Other larger iron ore deposits farther north at Lac Oteluk and Baffinland, far away from rail and infrastructure, will cost 5 to 8 billion dollars each. They may never become mines because of the cost!
I'm impressed by Dalton's ability to time the resources market. I read an old article about how Dalton was advising many in the resources community to look at uranium in 2003. He made 200 million dollars for Altius by developing uranium properties early and selling at the uranium market top in 2007 (and the 2% Aurora royalty on 130 million pounds of uranium will eventually be very valuable as the nuclear renaissance continues). Now iron ore is the hot commodity. Altius' success with Alderon/Kami proves that the Labrador Trough, with its infrastructure, is the right place for developing economic mines, not just promising deposits. I expect many of these claims will be developed in the next 5 years because of the strength of the Asian iron ore demand. Iron ore is not difficult to find in the Labrador Trough. Financing and market demand have been the sticking points for decades but now both are readily available from the booming Asian economies.