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Altius Minerals Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript
Altius Minerals (TSX:ALS) reported third-quarter financial results on Wednesday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
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Summary
Altius Minerals reported Q3 2026 net earnings of $10.1 million, or $0.17 per share, with record royalty revenue of $33.3 million and adjusted EBITDA of $27.1 million.
The company announced the acquisition of TNR Gold, adding royalty interests in the Los Azules copper project and the Mariana lithium project, emphasizing large resource endowments.
Altius completed a public offering raising $174 million, amended its credit facility to $350 million, and increased its stake in Great Bay Renewables from 29% to 50%.
Operational highlights included a strong quarter for electricity royalties, ongoing lithium production advancements, and stable performance in base metals despite economic volatility.
Management expressed optimism about revenue growth from pre-production-stage royalties and highlighted strategic initiatives to address bottlenecks in renewable energy projects.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Welcome to the Altius Q3 2026 financial results conference and webcast call. At this time all lines are in the listen-only mode. Following the presentation we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator. This call is being recorded on Wednesday, November 11, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Flora Wood. Please go ahead.
Flora Wood (Investor Relations)
Thank you, Vincent. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Q3 2026 conference call. Our press release and interim filings came out yesterday after the close and are available on our website along with this conference call presentation. This event is being webcast live and you’ll be able to access a replay of the call along with the presentation slides. You would also have seen at 7:30 a.m. our definitive agreement to acquire TNR Gold and we can answer questions on that as well.
With me in the room I have Ernie Ortiz, VP Corp. Dev, and online I have Brian Dalton, CEO, and Stephanie Hussey, CFO. Brian and Stephanie will be our main speakers and Ernie is also here for questions in the Q&A. The forward-looking statement on slide two of the deck applies to everything we say both in our formal remarks and during the Q&A, and with that Stephanie is up first to take us through the numbers.
Stephanie Hussey (Chief Financial Officer)
Thank you, Flora, and good morning, everybody. Yesterday we reported Q3 net earnings of 10.1 million, or $0.17 per share, reflecting higher revenues and higher expenses including cost of sales, share-based compensation, and amortization when compared to last year. Earnings in the third quarter of 2025 reflected a gain on our partial sale of the Arthur royalty. Royalty revenue of $33.3 million, a record. Adjusted EBITDA of $27.1 million for the third quarter reflects higher realized prices, timing of copper stream deliveries, the addition of four operating lithium royalties, as well as higher electricity royalty revenue.
Operating cash flow of 11.8 million reflects higher royalty receipts and interest income, offset by higher tax payments, interest paid, and working capital changes. Adjusted net earnings of $0.18 per share for the quarter was higher than Q3 2025 with the main adjusting items being foreign exchange and revaluation of derivatives. During Q3 we announced a number of significant transactions which we previously touched on in our Q2 call. On July 21st we closed a bought deal public offering of 3 million common shares at a price of $60.50 per share and received net proceeds of 174 million. On July 24th we completed an amendment to our credit facility to upsize to 350 million from 225 million, replacing the previous term and revolving debt with a single revolver with no principal payments required going forward.
The debt balance outstanding of 87 million was transferred to the amended credit facility at closing and maturity was extended from August 2028 to July 2030. The corporation completed a drawdown of 100 million on the revolver at the end of July, and on July 30, the corporation completed a share purchase agreement with Northampton and certain funds managed by affiliates of Apollo. The purchase consideration paid by Altius was 167 million US and it was funded through existing liquidity consisting of cash on hand and debt.
Altius Minerals increased its effective interest in Great Bay Renewables from 29% to 50% following the transaction. Current total liquidity available to the corporation is approximately 500 million and includes cash on hand, 163 million available under the revolver, as well as 150 million potentially available as an accordion feature subject to certain criteria. Under the terms of our expanded credit facility, during the quarter, we paid total cash dividends of 6.1 million and issued approximately 6,000 shares under the dividend reinvestment plan. Yesterday, our board of directors approved a quarterly dividend of $0.11 per share to be paid to shareholders of record on November 30 with a payment date of December 15.
In August, we also renewed our normal course issuer bid, which will end no later than August 21, 2027, and there were no shares repurchased under the NCIB in Q3. And with that, I’ll turn it over to Brian.
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you, Stephanie. Good morning, everyone. Today, in addition to reviewing the quarterly results that we published last night, we also get to talk about a new acquisition. This morning we announced that we’ve entered into an arrangement agreement to acquire TNR Gold. The key features of the transaction from our perspective are the addition of a royalty on the advanced-stage Los Azules copper development project and the consolidation of the remainder of a royalty interest we already partly held relating to the operating-stage Mariana lithium project.
The Altius hallmark attribute that these assets have in common is very large resource endowments and all of the life extension and production rate expansion optionality that comes from that. I won’t take up too much time describing the transaction details, but do draw your attention to the release that just hit the wires. We’re very happy to welcome TNR shareholders to Altius and to thank them for recognizing the enhanced strength and value that the combination offers both sides of the deal.
Turning now to the quarterly results, during Q3 we continued to integrate around our lithium royalty acquisition and the increased interest we acquired in ARR, while also closing on an equity raise and the restructuring and expansion of our credit facilities as Steph has described. We also continued to be busy in expanding our PG equity portfolio and a longer-term royalty pipeline. Subsequent to the quarter end we announced a transaction to acquire a royalty on a development-stage potash solution mine in Saskatchewan.
Your team has been busy. Our operating royalties performed well again in Q3, with revenues continuing to ramp up in line with, or slightly better than, our strong five-year growth outlook. We also continue to gain positive signals relating to a number of pre-production-stage royalties that are keeping us optimistic that our revenue growth trajectory can extend well beyond our currently published outlook period. In lithium there were some ups and downs. Sigma experienced a period of production shutdown due to permitting-related challenges. These have since been resolved and the operation is back up and running and continuing to advance its Stage Two expansion. Core continued its restart work at Finniss and is expecting first production during the current quarter. Mariana, 3Q, and Goulamina continue to ramp up production levels, advance expansion planning, and execution efforts.
Lithium prices gave up a lot of their sharp earlier increases and are arguably now back below incentivization levels, while demand growth continues to occur at a remarkably high rate and inventories remain relatively thin. In base metals, we note that Chapada had another very strong production quarter while also breaking ground on construction of the infrastructure required for expanding operations and incorporating higher-grade ore from the new Saúva discoveries. Silvercorp continued on track with construction at Curipamba, while PFS work continued at Gunnison. Vale indicated that it is now exploring expansion options at Voisey’s Bay following successful completion of the ramp-up of its two new underground mines.
Base metal prices were generally stable during the quarter in spite of heightened global economic and geopolitical volatility and uncertainty. We saw a particularly strong quarter on the electricity front, with GBR and in turn ARR making its largest portfolio contribution to Altius Minerals to date. This was partly due to our increased ownership but also reflected the continued commissioning of royalty projects that were developed both through our longer lead-time developer investments as well as directly into late-stage and operating-stage projects. There continues to be a lot of growth activity occurring within the electricity generation portfolio, with 15 royalty projects currently under construction and expected to commission over the next couple of years.
A significant share of GBR’s revenue this past quarter has come through the financing of fully refundable interconnection deposits. These deposit amounts are becoming increasingly burdensome for project proponents as grid authorities seek to winnow out connection request congestion. By providing this capital on behalf of proponents, GBR allows them to instead focus their direct capital resources on project advancement. While GBR makes a spread over its own financing facilities costs when providing these deposits and maintains control over the refundability mechanics, its main objective with this business line is to drive royalty corporate development initiatives. The hope here is that as projects advance through interconnection queues and refundable deposits require replacement with non-refundable deposits, we will be able to continue to support our partners with royalty-based capital into projects which at that point will have been de-risked from the key interconnection progress perspective.
In potash, we heard continued favorable commentary from our operators who are expecting record global demand this year and then again next, as well as constrained production and shipping abilities for major global competitors. Prices continue to edge up in most regions. Each of Nutrien and Mosaic continued to describe the potential for low-cost production growth that could allow them to hold or grow market share as total demand steadily increases.
This ability to grow capacity incrementally remains solid for the next few years before more meaningful brownfields-type expansions will be required if market share is to be maintained. Subsequent to the quarter, we acquired royalty interest in a new potash mine project being advanced by Buffalo Potash. This project employs new patented solution mine technologies that are intended to improve efficiencies relative to conventional solution mining. Buffalo has since commenced the introduction of solution to the targeted potash horizon in what is referred to as its initial production module.
Benchmark-quality iron ore prices were down during the quarter. However, this was offset by increases in premiums for higher-purity concentrates and pellets. IOC production also improved quarter over quarter but continued to be relatively low as a percentage of nameplate capacity, while significant investments in improving ore accessibility and equipment and plant performance are made across the operation. These investments have continued to result in IOC not paying equity dividends to shareholders, and hence LIORC shareholder dividend being derived entirely from royalty revenue.
Lately, Kami Partners, Champion, Nippon and Sojitz continue to advance feasibility work and discussions with stakeholders. We also heard good news concerning potential major hydroelectric agreements and development in the region that offer a potential to solve for that particular project design bottleneck. In project generation, the team was busy identifying equity-level deployment opportunities that mostly included royalty creation components as well. This work is serving to continue to grow our longer-term royalty pipeline and builds upon strong progress last year that was highlighted by the rapid advancement of the Arthur Gold Project and our underlying royalty interest there. At Arthur, AngloGold Ashanti continued to advance its feasibility study.
They have stated that they are targeting decades of sustained production at approximately 500,000 ounces per year, while also noting that current exploration targets have the potential to substantially expand the district’s annual production capacity. For those interested, I would here highlight a presentation that AGA has recently published to its website. The potential for additional growth and scale outlined within that presentation is the stuff of geologist dreams.
So with that, let me turn it over to questions. But first let me once again thank my fellow team members for their incredible efforts. You’re the smartest, hardest-working team in the business, and it’s an absolute privilege to work with you. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question over the phone lines, you will need to press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. And if you would like to withdraw a question, press star, then the number two. That will be star one for phone questions. If you want to submit your question over the webcast, you may do so by clicking on the question-and-answer panel, enter your question, and submit to queue.
We will be taking phone questions now. First question comes from Orest Wowkodaw from Scotiabank.
Orest Wowkodaw (Analyst at Scotiabank)
Hi, good morning. Wondering if you could give us a bit more color on the acquisition from this morning. The press release mentions, I guess, an NPI on the Jose Maria project, which I assume is part of the Vicuña district with Lundin/BHP. Can you give us some details on what the royalty is and what, say, percentage of Jose Maria it may cover? I’m just not sure if it’s just a sliver of it or if it covers the whole deposit. Thanks.
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
Hey Orest. Yeah, it covers two claim units, I guess, within the overall land package. It doesn’t actually cover any of the known mineralization, but the southeast corner of the Jose Maria deposit basically touches right at that corner. So yeah, I would look at it as sort of longer-term optionality within the district rather than it being something related to any of the known mineralization. And yes, it’s a net profits interest royalty.
Orest Wowkodaw (Analyst at Scotiabank)
Oh, I see. Okay, so it’s not.
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
I would definitely call it a lower, lower priority than the other two assets we described in the presentation, but, you know, good long-term optionality.
Orest Wowkodaw (Analyst at Scotiabank)
I see. Okay, so it’s not part of the current reserves, resources, or mine plan.
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
Maybe catches a corner of it.
Orest Wowkodaw (Analyst at Scotiabank)
Okay, got it. And then just, you know, I like the fact that you’re adding some more copper exposure here into the portfolio. I’m just wondering also if you’re seeing more opportunities out there that could be similar to this that, I guess, could advance that copper exposure.
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
Some. I mean, we’ve got our own list of the projects that we think have a shot at, you know, coming into this market and solving for that deficit that we all see looming. And some of those, particularly as they mount up for project finance, you know, the indications we’re getting are that there will be some cracks at some things there. Now, it’s a question always as to whether or not those operators will try to stream by-products versus the copper that we’d be interested in.
But yeah, there is some stuff brewing. Obviously, there’s lots of people dusting off studies and trying to get to the point that they’re targeting investment decision dates and that sort of thing. Obviously the first time we’ve seen that in more than a decade.
Orest Wowkodaw (Analyst at Scotiabank)
Yeah, fair enough. And obviously we’ve seen, I mean, Altius Minerals has been very active on the transaction front in the last year or so. Should we anticipate that could continue through ’27?
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
Maybe. It’s not really like something that—other than, you know, when we closed the Arthur transaction, we did feel, call it pressure, but an opportunity to redeploy that capital, you know, into even more assets and things that are more probably along our more traditional commodity interest lines. But, you know, this one was more of an opportunistic thing rather than any kind of big concerted effort. Like, I just like right now the growth optionality that’s already embedded in the portfolio across, you know, current operating assets or things that are under construction or that we think can get sanctioned.
If something really attractive comes along, sure, we’ll be there. But, you know, it’s not an imperative by any means. We’re in really good shape for this market and what’s coming.
Orest Wowkodaw (Analyst at Scotiabank)
Okay, thanks for the color.
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from Craig Hutchinson from TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Craig Hutchinson (Analyst at TD Cowen)
Hi guys. A couple questions just on the renewables royalty business. Just with the change in political fortunes in the US here, do you guys see that as an opportunity for you guys? Obviously Democrats were pretty pro-renewables. That’s the first question. And just, you mentioned in your opening remarks around these interconnection deposits. Obviously very lumpy kind of quarter to quarter, but how should we think about it? Maybe going into Q4 and is there any kind of expectations around that into 2027? Thanks.
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
It’s a good question. Is this, you know, the change in the Congress that’s coming, if it’s going to be a tailwind or headwind? I mean, some would argue that sort of the restraint that the data center industry is going to face might represent a longer-term decline in demand. I don’t really buy that because, quite frankly, there was never any way to ever provide enough electricity for what was being touted anyway. And I guess more broadly for sure, the Democrats certainly lean more towards—at least it’s not a full-on assault on the industry like it has been, right. So now, again, despite that, despite a full-on assault on the industry, in a really ironic way, this recent administration has probably done more for growth of the industry than any of the prior recent Democrat government. So who knows? I just know that the US needs so much new electricity generation overall, data centers or no data centers.
And if you can get it on the grid, if you can connect to the grid, there’s going to be somebody that wants to buy that power and help you finance your project. So there’s a busy, busy pipeline there.
Craig Hutchinson (Analyst at TD Cowen)
And just the interconnection deposits—any kind of visibility into Q4 on that, or thoughts in terms of what we should kind of still…
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, still lots of demand there. You know, again I said it in the prepared remarks. The amount of those deposits has been ratcheting up pretty heavily, is really what’s going on. The queues are just too congested, and so by forcing deposits on developers, you know, it takes out some of the weaker, more speculative players. But there’s, you know, real projects really feeling the strain, I think, of having to put up that much deposit alongside trying to continue to advance their projects.
So yeah, the team’s got a really good pipeline. I don’t know how sustainable that business is in the long haul at this point. You know, it’s going to be a function of how this interconnection congestion issue—how persistent that becomes and how much the system operators feel the need to continue to press back with these big deposits. I don’t see any let-up in it in the line of sight. But again, it’s sort of a new thing, and we’ve got a really neat position there, and hopefully it leads to a lot more longer-term recurring cash flows through royalty deployments.
But I just can’t promise it right now. But for now we’re really enjoying it.
Craig Hutchinson (Analyst at TD Cowen)
Okay, thanks, Brian. I appreciate the color. Cheers.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from John Tumazos from John Tumazos Very Independent Research. Please go ahead.
John Tumazos (Analyst at John Tumazos Very Independent Research)
Thank you for taking my question. Could you review the timetable for the TNR assets, or which year you think each one will begin to report revenue?
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
Well, Mariana is already in production, so they’re in ramp-up right now. So that should begin to flow, you know, very, very soon. The Los Azules asset, I can just basically refer to what McEwen Copper has published. So they’re targeting final investment decision in the middle part of next year, and they’ve described about a three-year construction window post-FID. So they’re targeting somewhere in 2030. That will be a leachable operation, so from a revenue perspective I think we’d be looking more at, you know, 2031 probably for royalty revenue if their plan comes to fruition.
John Tumazos (Analyst at John Tumazos Very Independent Research)
Thank you very much.
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you for the question, John.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from Gabriel Chu from Bullpen Research. Please go ahead. Gabriel Chu, your line is open. Please go ahead.
Gabriel Chu (Analyst at Bullpen Research)
Sorry, I was on mute. Apologies for that. I just wanted to go back to the renewable side. Given the demand you’re seeing, could you perhaps talk about where you’re seeing bottlenecks that would act as a sort of upper limit for the GBR growth?
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
I mean, that’s kind of what GBR is designed to do, right—find bottlenecks in the sector and find ways to address them. So obviously we all know the interconnection process is an absolute, and that’s really just a function of the state of the grid right now. Another one, though, would relate to, you know, we’ve seen a lot of the tax credits starting to fade out, so a lot of what’s happening today is people rushing to beat those deadlines. But beyond that, that leaves a hole in the capital stack overall that’s going to impair, or certainly probably reduce, the amount of tax equity that these projects see. So that gap will need to be filled somewhere. So we’re pretty confident that our offering is going to be able to substitute very well for a chunk of that.
But beyond that, it’s the stuff that we all hear about. It’s just difficult to source equipment—everything from transformers to panels to you name it. There’s just tightness and bottlenecks everywhere. It’s been a generational-level increase in demand growth and the system is straining all over. But yeah, it’s everything, really. There’s bottlenecks and challenges everywhere, and that’s our job: find solutions for it.
Gabriel Chu (Analyst at Bullpen Research)
Okay, right. But then I’m just wondering, given you mentioned the capital hole, do you think there’s more opportunities to allocate additional capital to that side, or perhaps like… Or are you thinking maybe about…
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
I think royalty financing can substitute really well for tax equity here. You know, I guess the flip side of that, if I’m being really honest, compared to a few years ago, what we see right now is that if you’ve got an advanced-stage project, you can pretty much name your duration. You can contract with really high-quality counterparties for long durations, and so that’s obviously really supportive of the amount of leverage you can put on one of these projects.
But still, I think really our job is to think about the equity side of the equation and the holes that are there and finding ways to substitute for that. That is where we’re getting a lot of our traction right now—where most of our discussions and term sheets are flowing around. It’s people that are thinking about ways they can optimize the equity returns on their projects with our capital.
Gabriel Chu (Analyst at Bullpen Research)
Okay, see, I’ll just leave it there. Appreciate that then.
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
Thank you.
OPERATOR
Your next question comes from Mac Will from ATB Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
Maybe Ernie, you might want to step in on that one for me. I don’t actually know if there’s a timeline that’s been published.
Ernie Ortiz (VP Corp. Dev)
Yeah, and that’s correct, Brian. They haven’t published a specific timeline. But recall from acquiring Neo Lithium to first production, it was quite fast—between two and a half to three years. So based on what they’re doing, it could be before the end of the decade that they’re in first production for Tres Quebradas, and they are seeing efficiencies for phase two where the chemical plant is very likely going to be on the salar. So it could be reducing cost as well as transportation.
So as Brian said, there’s been no specific timetable, but based on what they did at phase one, we think it could be before the end of the decade, and they are fully committed to Argentina and Tres Quebradas. Good question. So I think what we’ll see, given the adverse weather patterns this year with El Niño—much stronger El Niño—Rio Tinto and a few others in Argentina called out the adverse weather. So we’ll see. But what is comforting to see is that they’re still increasing output overall, and they have aims to expand. So overall they’re seeing some improvements, but as far as when that gets ameliorated, we’ll have to see.
I think over time they do have expansion plans. So if you recall, originally the DMS plant was 1 million tons of ore. They’re now specifically calling for 1.2 million tons of ore, and they do have plans for potentially expanding beyond that. From what we gather and what’s in the public domain, the ramp-up is going well. Production started in the third quarter and first shipment is on track for this fourth quarter. The team and I will actually be on site next week.
But from our discussions, everything’s ramping up smoothly. They do have plans to potentially grow as the market continues to expand.
OPERATOR
Okay, great. Thanks. That’s my question. Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Again, that will be star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. There are no further questions at this time. I’ll turn the call back over to Flora.
Flora Wood (Investor Relations)
Thank you, Vincent. And thank you everybody for joining us. Thank you especially for the great questions, and we’ll look forward to talking to you again when we report our year-end results.
Brian Dalton (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, everyone.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you all for participating. You may now disconnect.
Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company’s SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants’ and analysts’ statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.