SUBSEQUENT EVENTS |
6 Months Ended |
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Jun. 30, 2022 | |
SUBSEQUENT EVENTS. | |
SUBSEQUENT EVENTS | 13. SUBSEQUENT EVENTS Acquisition of Additional Royalty Interest on Cortez Complex On August 2, 2022, we announced that we acquired a sliding-scale gross royalty (the “Cortez Royalty”) on an area including the Cortez mine operational area and the Fourmile development project in Nevada (the “Cortez Complex”). We paid $525 million in cash consideration for the Cortez Royalty to Kennecott Royalty Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rio Tinto European Holdings Limited. The area within the Cortez Complex is owned or controlled by Nevada Gold Mines LLC (“NGM”), a joint venture between Barrick Gold Corporation (“Barrick”) (61.5% owner and operator) and Newmont Corporation (38.5% owner), with the exception of the Fourmile project which is 100% owned and operated by Barrick. The Cortez Royalty is a life of mine sliding scale gross royalty payable at a rate of 0% at a gold price less than $400 per ounce, increasing to 3% at a gold price above $900 per ounce, and is payable on 40% of all production from the Cortez Complex. The Cortez Royalty does not cover the existing deposits within the Robertson property. At current gold prices the Cortez Royalty is an effective 1.2% gross royalty on the Cortez Complex and is not subject to any stepdowns or caps. The Cortez Royalty is payable after cumulative production from the Cortez Complex of 15 million gold equivalent ounces from January 1, 2008 onwards. According to Barrick public disclosure, cumulative production from January 1, 2008, was approximately 14.8 million ounces as of June 30, 2022. The purchase price was funded with debt and available cash on hand. In anticipation of this acquisition, we borrowed $500 million under our revolving credit facility in July 2022, leaving $500 million available. Per our credit facility dated June 2, 2017, as amended, the borrowing was under a Base Rate loan option with an all-in interest rate of approximately 5.6%. We anticipate converting the Base Rate loan into a LIBOR loan on or around August 5, 2022. Agreement to Acquire Great Bear Royalties Corporation On July 11, 2022, we announced that we had entered into a definitive agreement with Great Bear Royalties Corporation (“GBR”) to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of GBR for cash consideration of C$6.65 per common share, which values GBR at approximately C$199.5 million (approximately US$155 million) on a fully diluted basis. GBR’s sole material asset is a 2.0% NSR royalty (the “Royalty”) that includes the entire 9,140 hectares of the Great Bear Project in the Red Lake district of Ontario, Canada, indirectly owned and operated by Kinross Gold Corporation (“Kinross”). We plan to fund the purchase price with available cash on hand. As part of our due diligence, we entered into a co-operation agreement with Kinross to obtain access to Kinross personnel and certain information pertaining to the Great Bear Project. In exchange, we agreed to amend certain terms of the royalty agreement upon closing of the acquisition, including providing an option to Kinross to purchase a 25% interest in the Royalty for an amount equal to 25% of our purchase price of GBR, adjusted for inflation, at any time from the transaction closing date until the earlier of a construction decision for the Great Bear Project and 10 years after the transaction closing date. The acquisition has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both Royal Gold and GBR, and the board of directors of GBR has resolved to recommend that the shareholders of GBR approve the acquisition. All directors and officers of GBR have entered into support agreements to vote their shares in support of the acquisition representing, in aggregate, approximately 10.5% of the outstanding common shares of GBR. The arrangement agreement provides us a customary right to match any superior proposal and includes customary non-solicitation covenants. In addition, the arrangement agreement requires GBR to pay a termination fee of C$7.0 million (approximately US$6 million) to us if GBR terminates the arrangement agreement in certain circumstances. The transaction is subject to approval by the shareholders of GBR, and regulatory and court approvals. GBR expects to hold a special meeting of shareholders to approve the transaction on August 31, 2022, and subject to approval by shareholders, GBR will shortly thereafter seek approval by the Supreme Court of British Columbia of a plan of arrangement under the provisions of the Business Corporations Act (British Columbia). We expect the transaction to close during the quarter ending September 30, 2022.
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