Royal Gold Agrees To Acquire 25% Gold Stream On The Mt. Milligan Project
DENVER, CO - Royal Gold, Inc. has agreed to acquire 25% of the payable gold produced from the Mt. Milligan copper-gold project in British Columbia from Thompson Creek Metals Company or its affiliate concurrent with the closing of Thompson Creek's proposed acquisition of Terrane Metals Corp. Royal Gold will provide $226.5 million at closing of Thompson Creek's acquisition of Terrane and thereafter $85.0 million over the construction period of the Mt. Milligan project. In addition, Royal Gold will pay Thompson Creek a cash payment equal to the lesser of $400 or the prevailing market price for each payable ounce of gold until 550,000 ounces have been delivered to Royal Gold and the lesser of $450 or the prevailing market price for each additional ounce thereafter. Royal Gold will fund this transaction with cash on hand.
The Mt. Milligan project is in the early stages of construction, and Terrane has announced that production is expected to commence in 2013. Terrane has reported that proven and probable reserves total 482 million tonnes (0.20% copper; 0.39 g/t gold), containing 2.1 billion pounds of copper and 6.0 million ounces of gold. Terrane expects the reserves to support a mine life of at least 22 years and estimates that Mt. Milligan will produce approximately 262,000 ounces of gold during the first six years of operation and 195,000 ounces of gold annually over the life of the mine. Mt. Milligan has received an Environmental Assessment Certificate and a Mines Act Permit from the Province of British Columbia and the Environmental Assessment approval from the Government of Canada. Terrane has also secured long lead-time equipment and has entered into an engineering, procurement and construction management contract with an AMEC-Fluor joint venture.
Tony Jensen, President and CEO, said, We are pleased to be working with Thompson Creek and Terrane to help unlock the substantial value at Mt. Milligan. This combination brings together the strengths of each company and provides Royal Gold with another near term, long lasting gold revenue source in an attractive host country. It fits perfectly in our portfolio along with our other major future revenue sources of Peasquito, Andacollo, Pascua-Lama, and Voisey's Bay.
The company's address is 1660 Wynkoop Street, Suite 1000, Denver, CO 80202, 303-573-1660.