Altius raises exploration funds

Junior Altius Minerals (ALS-V) has raised over a million dollars to continue exploring its various projects in western and central Newfoundland.

The St. John’s-based company issued 1 million units at $1.05 apiece to raise gross proceeds of $1.05 million. A unit consists of a share and half a warrant, with a full warrant entitling the holder to purchase a share at $1.25 within a year of the deal’s closing or at $1.50 in the following year.

In return for underwriting the private placement, Haywood Securities will receive a 7% commission, payable in cash or shares. It also received 50,000 warrants that can be converted into shares within a year of the deal’s closing, at $1.05 each.

The financing is subject to exchange approval.

Concurrently, Altius has expanded its exploration portfolio by staking 465 claims adjoining its Rocky Brook property and another 780 claims in the Baie d’Espoir region. The latter group of claims represent the company’s first acquisition in the south-central region of the province.

Geologically, the southern portion of the Baie d’Espoir property is underlain by metamorphosed siltstone, pelite, slate and graphitic schists. All are intruded by felsic dykes and a large granite body.

A portion of the claims in this area also display quartz veining in a shallowly dipping fault zone that measures up to three metres thick. Representative boulders are spread along trend for 3 km, and grab samples of pyrite-bearing quartz veins yield up to 6.5 grams gold per tonne, plus anomalous bismuth, silver and molybdenum.

The northern portion of the property displays vein-style and stratiform tungsten mineralization in calc-silicate metasediments that are intruded by granitic and granodioritic bodies emplaced in the Late Silurian to Early Carboniferous periods. Past lake sediment surveys outlined a prominent arsenic-tungsten-gold anomaly over 100 sq. km.

Situated in western Newfoundland, the Rocky Brook property is considered prospective for uranium, silver and gold mineralization. The new claims cover radioactively emitting outcrops of uranium mineralization and copper staining.