Mr. Chad Wells reports

ALTIUS PROVIDES YEAR-END PROJECT GENERATION UPDATE

Altius Minerals Corp. has provided an update on its project-generation business activities and its public junior equities portfolio. The market value of the junior equities portfolio at the Dec. 31, 2017, year-end was $44.1-million. This includes net cash investment additions during the year of $5.4-million but does not include the Champion Iron Ore convertible debenture and other in-the-money warrants. Converting these additional non-public instruments to equities would add an additional $14.4-million to the junior equity portfolio as of year-end. An updated list of the public equity holdings has been posted to the company's website.

Project generation portfolio activity

Altius continues to advance its efforts to co-create a new copper focused company, into which it intends to contribute a portfolio of Chilean copper-gold projects. Watusi Capital Corp. announced a transaction on Dec. 13, 2017, to acquire the project portfolio in exchange for shares and to rename itself Aethon Minerals Corp. As a condition to closing, a non-brokered private placement to raise a minimum of $4.0-million and up to $7.7-million into Watusi is being led by Sprott Capital Partners and affiliates (See Dec. 15, 2017, SEDAR posting).

The Moosehead gold project in central Newfoundland was optioned to Sokoman Iron Corp. subject to receipt of regulatory approvals which remain pending. Altius will retain a 2-per-cent net smelter return royalty and be issued shares amounting to 19.9 per cent of the total outstanding on a posttransaction basis. The value of the Sokoman shares will be reflected in the junior equity portfolio following closing of the transaction.

Closing has occurred for the previously announced equity financing of Wolfden Resources Corp. and Altius has acquired 14.2 million common shares at 25 cents per share and 7.1 million share purchase warrants that can be exercised at 35 cents per share.

On Dec. 5, 2017, Allegiance Coal Ltd. announced a revised agreement with Altius to acquire 100 per cent of the rights to the Telkwa metallurgical coal project in British Columbia that will result in the issuance to Altius of an additional 40.6 million shares of Allegiance and increase Altius's ownership of Allegiance to approximately 14 per cent (51,556,282 shares). Altius also retains a sliding-scale gross sales royalty (1.5 per cent to 3 per cent) on the Telkwa project.

Altius acquired an additional 3,068,182 shares of Adventus Zinc Corp. as part of a $10-million equity placement that closed Dec. 21, 2017, to maintain Altius's ownership level at 26.6 per cent.

Junior equities portfolio company highlights

Companies in which Altius holds equity and/or royalty positions have delivered the following highlights since the last update:

In January, 2018, Adventus Zinc announced the completion of an equity financing and commencement of an extensive exploration program at the recently acquired Curipamba project in Ecuador, with initial work focused on the Sesmo target which is located 1,100 metres north of the El Domo deposit.

In late December, 2017, Wolfden Resources announced the start of a diamond drilling program at its Pickett Mountain project in Maine, which will include approximately 10,000 metres of drilling and is intended to verify and expand upon historical high-grade drill results.

Excelsior Mining Corp. announced a non-brokered private placement in mid-December to raise a total of $38,635,200 (approximately $30-million (U.S.)) through the issuance of 38,635,200 common shares of Excelsior at a price of $1 per common share. The net proceeds of the offering will be used for the development, construction and maintenance of the company's Gunnison copper project, including the acquisition of long-lead items, and for working capital requirements.

In December Antler Gold Inc. announced drill results from the first phase of its drilling at Wilding Lake in central Newfoundland that included gold intercepts of 10.01 grams per tonne over 5.35 metres, including 49.92 g/t over 0.98 m from the Elm zone, and 1.51 g/t over 11.0 m from the Red Ochre complex.

Evrim Resources Corp. has been active in establishing a new joint venture with Antofogasta Minerals while one of its partners, First Majestic Silver, also announced positive drilling results from the Ermitano West project in Mexico. Further information can be viewed at Evrim's website.

Project generation project developments

Altius was very active in 2017 advancing a diversified portfolio of exploration lands for future deals. This includes more than 1.7 million hectares of mineral rights targeting gold, silver, diamonds and base-metal opportunities in Canada (Newfoundland, Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia), the United States, Finland and Australia. Consistent with Altius's business plan, the company seeks strategic partners to work with to advance these projects.

Sail Pond, Newfoundland

The wholly owned, 739-mineral-claim (18,475-hectare) Sail Pond project in Newfoundland represents a unique style of sediment-hosted mineralization that was previously unknown in this region and that offers potential for both high-grade and bulk-tonnage-type targets. High-grade silver-rich copper-lead-zinc mineralization is associated with quartz-calcite veins and breccias in altered calcareous sedimentary rocks. The mineralized zones have never been drill tested or surveyed by geophysics. Prospecting and trenching by Altius in 2017 resulted in the identification of two broad mineralized zones. The South zone measures at least two kilometres in strike, whereas the North zone is at least seven kilometres in strike. Some highlights of recent channel sample assays include a 1.0 m channel sample grading 499 g/t Ag, 2.66 per cent copper, 6.80 per cent lead, 0.27 per cent zinc and 0.33 g/t Au (trench SPTR-10; North zone) a 2.9 m channel sample grading 180 g/t Ag, 0.97 per cent Cu, 0.24 per cent Pb and 0.18 per cent Zn (trench SPTR-16). Altius acknowledges support from the province of Newfoundland and Labrador via the junior exploration assistance program program for this work.

James Bay, Quebec

The company's 50-50 strategic alliance with Midland Exploration Inc. in the James Bay territory of Northern Quebec focuses on generating new gold projects geologically similar to the Eleonore deposit as well as base-metal opportunities. The first season of work was successful and has resulted in several new surface-prospect discoveries. More information can be found at Midland's website.

Lynx project, Manitoba

Microdiamond analysis data received to date from 15 samples from the Eastern Bay zone of the Lynx diamond project located at Knee Lake, Manitoba, have yielded a total of 1,693 microdiamonds (larger than 0.106 millimetre to larger than 0.850 mm size fraction) and seven macrodiamonds (larger than 0.5 mm) from 240 kilograms of rock, collected over approximately three kilometres of strike length. Additional studies have also allowed development of a deposit-type model for the mineralization that will guide future programs while completion of an independent National Instrument 43-101 report is anticipated in the first quarter of 2018. Updated results are available at the company's website. Altius acknowledges the support from the Province of Manitoba via its mineral exploration assistance program.

Finland projects

Altius commenced exploration activities and land acquisition in Finland during 2016. To date, Altius holds seven orogenic gold-focused reservations within the Central Lapland and the Perapohja greenstone belts for a total of 242,212 ha. Initial reconnaissance-style exploration work by Altius personnel during the summer of 2017 has recognized widespread quartz-tourmaline-albite-magnetite-pyrite alteration and veining associated with anomalous copper-and-gold mineralization adjacent to major regional structures (that is, the Sirkka shear zone). Several historic gold occurrences are located on Altius's reservations.

Mt. Isa and Broken Hill projects, Australia

Altius has acquired by staking a 100-per-cent interest in a 2,000-square-kilometre package of 10 exploration titles within two world-class base-metal provinces, Mt. Isa and Broken Hill. The Broken Hill West project comprises three granted tenements, covering 35,000 hectares of the prospective Broken Hill group located 25 kilometres southwest of the Broken Hill mine. The Broken Hill deposit is one of the most significant zinc-lead-silver deposits globally, with historical past production of approximately 200 million tons of ore. The Altius land package has only had 18 historic drill holes which intersected the prospective target stratigraphy and presents a compelling exploration play.

The Mount Isa land package comprises seven tenements (six granted, one pending) covering almost 155,000 ha of prospective stratigraphy within the Proterozoic Mt. Isa inlierm which is host to approximately 125 million tons zinc equivalent contained in 14 deposits, as well as hosting significant copper potential such as the world-class the Mt. Isa deposit. Altius will commence work early this year on refining targets on these projects.

Lawrence Winter, PhD, PGeo, vice-president of exploration for Altius, a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, is responsible for the scientific and technical data presented herein and has reviewed, prepared and approved this release.

Quality assurance/quality control

Sample collection was done under the supervision of Altius personnel and shipped in sealed bags and containers. Thorough QA/QC protocols are followed, including the insertion of blanks and standards at regular intervals in each sample batch for all precious and base-metal samples. Analytical work for the Sail Pond project was completed at Eastern Analytical Limited in Springdale, Nfld., and ALS Global in North Vancouver, B.C. For the Lynx diamond project, caustic fusion/chemical processing, diamond observation, weighing, description and photography (MiDA) was performed by SRC in Saskatoon, Sask., an independent mineral process laboratory facility. SRC provided descriptions for all stones larger than 0.3 mm. This method is ISO/IEC 7025:2005-accredited by the Standards Council of Canada.

About Altius Minerals Corp.

Altius directly and indirectly holds diversified royalties and streams that generate revenue from 15 operating mines. These are located in Canada and Brazil and produce copper, zinc, nickel, cobalt, iron ore, potash, and thermal (electrical) and metallurgical coal. The portfolio also includes numerous predevelopment-stage royalties covering a wide spectrum of mineral commodities and jurisdictions. In addition, Altius holds a large portfolio of exploration-stage projects which it has generated for deal making with industry partners that results in newly created royalties and equity and minority interests.