Altius Minerals Corporation and Lithium Royalty Corp have announced a definitive agreement under which Altius will acquire all issued and convertible shares of LRC for approximately C$520 million. 

The deal values each LRC equity share at C$9.50, payable at shareholders’ election in cash or 0.240 Altius common shares. To manage the mix, cash consideration is capped at one-third of the total, while share consideration is limited to 11.5 million Altius shares. Shareholders who do not make an election will receive default consideration of C$3.16 in cash plus 0.16 Altius shares per LRC share. 

The aggregate transaction breaks down to roughly C$173 million in cash and C$347 million in Altius shares. Altius already owns an effective 8% interest in LRC through limited partnership units with LRC conversion rights. 

The acquisition gives Altius access to a large portfolio of royalties across operating and exploration-stage projects, including 37 new royalties with long to ultra-long implied resource lives, 12 advanced-stage projects with completed feasibility or preliminary economic studies and 3–5 additional projects planning to start operations between 2026–2030. 

Assets are primarily in Canada, Australia, and South America, offering a low geopolitical risk profile and diversification across both brine and hard-rock lithium production. Altius expects acquisition-based royalty revenue to ramp to C$40–60 million by decade’s end. 

The move comes amid a recent lithium price dip below $9,000/t LCE, far below the previous cyclical high of $80,000/t. Market demand is expected to exceed 1.5 Mt LCE in 2025, driven by grid storage, transport, consumer products, and emerging battery markets. Analysts predict a potential market deficit as early as 2026, underscoring the strategic timing of the deal. 

The acquisition complements Altius’s existing exposure to the electricity sector and grants access to LRC’s industry networks. LRC CEO Ernie Ortiz is expected to join Altius’s Corporate Development team following closing, enhancing G&A efficiency and revenue scaling. 

Altius CEO Brian Dalton said, “We believe that this transaction creates strong value for shareholders by adding a significant pipeline of operating, development and evaluation stage assets to the Base and Battery Metals component of our business. Altius was an early strategic investor and partner of LRC and participated in its asset selections and royalty structuring efforts.  

"Since then, the lithium market has matured and grown considerably and is now emerging as a mainstream scale mined commodity. We believe that the portfolio the LRC team has constructed features all of the key attributes that we seek in our royalty investments, including: very long resource lives that we expect will translate into multiple future operational expansions and life extensions; strong cost curve positioning, and a low jurisdictional risk profile that in this case is dominated by the Americas and Australia.” 

He added, “We are pleased that current LRC CEO Ernie Ortiz has expressed his willingness to join Altius following completion of the transaction to continue to oversee the assets and relationships that are being acquired, as well as to support the Altius corporate development team in future potential initiatives across all of its commodity focus areas.”