Metal mining company sells land north of Penobscot County project
By Kathleen Phalen Tomaselli, The County Staff
Wolfden Resources Corp., the company trying to develop a metallic mineral mine in northern Penobscot County, has agreed to sell just over half of its 6,826 acres to Altius Royalty Corp. in a $1.5 million cash deal expected to close on Jan. 31, according to Wolfden.
Altius, a Newfoundland-based mining and mineral royalty company, already holds a percentage of the royalty rights to the zinc, lead, copper and silver allegedly located in the northern Penobscot County site, according to Canada’s Toronto Stock Exchange.
Wolfden plans to sell 3,770 acres in the deal. It will retain another 3,082 acres around Pickett Mountain — located about eight miles north of Patten — that are not included in the sale. For five years, it will also retain the right to explore and buy-back the mineral rights of the land it’s selling.
It was not immediately clear why the two companies were pursuing the transaction or how it could affect the Pickett Mountain project, which has so far failed to overcome numerous regulatory hurdles.
Ron Little, Wolfden’s president and CEO, could not be reached for comment regarding its future plans for the Pickett Mountain mineral deposit.
As part of the sale, Altius has agreed to forfeit all of its timber and carbon rights on the parcel it’s purchasing in exchange for retaining those rights on the Pickett Mountain land Wolfden will still own. The company has operations in the U.S., Brazil, Ireland, Canada, Spain, and Australia.
Little twice attempted to obtain Maine Land Use Planning Commission re-zoning approval for 374 acres at Pickett Mountain for its underground mine but was thwarted both times.
Company officials withdrew their initial 2021 application after LUPC staff cited multiple inconsistencies and errors in the calculations.
LUPC commissioners denied the mining company’s second application last February, following 11 months of extensive document gathering, staff review, public comment and four days of contentious public hearings.
Several experts testified that because Wolfden was a junior mineral exploration company, it was likely to sell the project to either Kinross or Altius, the largest Wolfden shareholder.
During December 2023 deliberations, several LUPC commissioners expressed concerns about Wolfden’s ability to responsibly move forward with the Pickett Mountain mining project. And in February, LUPC staff recommended that the commission deny Wolfden’s rezoning application.
If the Pickett Mountain acres had been rezoned from limited use to industrial use, it would have allowed Wolfden to seek a state mining permit with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. Without the commission’s rezoning approval, Wolfden is unable to proceed with its plans to mine minerals at Pickett Mountain.
In October, Evergold Corp., a British Columbia mining and mineral exploration company, granted Wolfden an option to acquire Rockland, a drill-ready Nevada gold property, in two stages with up to 75 percent interest in the operation. At the time, Little said that the company was selling some of its large U.S. land holdings to finance the Rockland option.
The BDN asked Little if he was planning to sell any Maine land holdings when the option was announced, but he declined to say at the time.