Royal Gold is a precious metals company with royalty claims on gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc at mines in over 20 countries (12 in the America's, most of the rest spread between Africa, Western Europe and the Soviet Union). Over half of the developmental properties it has interests in are producing however most (130 representing 70% of all properties) have not passed the exploration stage. Not all contracts are the same, some like the one it has with Thompson Creek Metals

Thompson Creek Metals

Thompson Creek Metals Company is a pure play molybdenum mining company, one of the world's largest with two operating mines , five mines in the developmental stage and a central processing facility in Pennsylvania...

 regarding a quarter of the gold produced at Mount Milligan lasts the length of the mine's life while others like Taparko in West Africa which ranges depending on the price of gold and the one in Pascua Lama (El Indio Gold Belt

El Indio Gold Belt

The El Indio Gold Belt is a mineral rich region spanning the border between Chile and Argentina that contains large quantities of gold, silver and copper. On both sides of the border the belt is located within the Andes....

) where the 5.23% royalty is contingent on gold prices (must be higher than $800 an ounce) are structured differently; Most claims are between 1% and 5% but a few like Andacolo (75%) and Taparko (15%) are over 10%. It also has an interest in Osisko Mining

Osisko Mining

Osisko is a development stage precious metals mining company headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. It operates in Canada with a focus on gold mines in the Abitibi gold belt of Quebec. The company was known as Osisko Exploration LTD...

's Malartic gold project within the abitibi gold belt

Abitibi gold belt

The abitibi gold belt is a region of Canada that extends from Wawa, Ontario to Val-d'Or, Quebec. Located within the mineral rich abitibi greenstone belt, the gold belt is an established gold mining district having produced over 100 mines, and 170 million ounces of gold since 1901...

 (about 3 percent, will be Canada's largest when production begins in 2012).

The royalties are either bought (paid Thompson Creek Metals

Thompson Creek Metals

Thompson Creek Metals Company is a pure play molybdenum mining company, one of the world's largest with two operating mines , five mines in the developmental stage and a central processing facility in Pennsylvania...

 $311.5 million in October 2010 for a guaranteed, fixed share of gold production at Mount Milligan) or acquired through project financing arrangements. Similar to silver streaming

Silver streaming

Silver streaming is the term often used when a company makes an agreement with a mining company to purchase all or part of their silver production at a low, fixed, predetermined price to which both parties agree. The silver is usually a by-product of the mineral the mining company's business is...

 companies, royalty companies are not exposed to the operational risks associated with mining.
Royal Gold's business has over a short period of time become more internationalized and diversified (in 2010 60% of revenue came from abroad compared to 44% the year before). In 2010 40% of revenue came from the USA compared to 79% in 2008; Canada down to 4% from 27% in 2008 however most assets in Canada are in the developmental phase while Africa nearly tripled to 29%.

Royal Gold is one of the world's leading precious metals royalty companies. In the 2009 edition of the Fortune Small Business Magazine (FSB) it ranked 10th among the fastest growing small businesses in the United States, 79 spots higher than in 2008.

History

2010 was the year the company experienced the most growth with over a billion of the $1.86 billion in assets it has (September 2010) added during the year. In 2007 it purchased an interest in the Penasquito mine which did not begin producing until 2010.
January 2010 acquired 75% of gold produced at Andacolo copper mine in Chile from Teck Resources. The royalty claim gets cut by 33.3% (down to 50% total) after it receives 910,000 ounces.

February 2010 completed the acquisition of another royalty company, IRC which has claims in Chile (Pascua Lama) and Canada (Voisey's Bay). International Royalty Company was quick to accept the $702 million deal from Royal Gold after Franco-Nevada

Franco-Nevada

Franco-Nevada Corporation is a Canadian company that owns royalties in gold mining and other commodity and natural resource investments. It is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange and NYSE Arca stock exchange....

 attempted a hostile $640 million takeover.

In the summer of 2011 Royal Gold paid Seabridge Gold

Seabridge Gold

Seabridge Gold is a Toronto-based North American resource exploration company. It owns Kerr-Sulphurates-Mitchell, a copper-gold-silver-molybdenum porphyry project in northern British Columbia. The deposit's proven-probable reserves includes 38.5 million ounces of gold, 214 million ounces of...

 C$160 million for a 2% net smelter return

Net smelter return

Net Smelter Return is the gross revenue that the owner of a mining property receives from the sale of the mine's metal/non metal products less transportation and refining costs. As a royalty it refers to the fraction of net smelter return that a mine operator is obligated to pay the owner of the...

 royalty claim on the KSM gold-copper-silver-molybdenum project in northern British Columbia.

By the end of the 2010 fiscal year the company was receiving royalty payments from 34 mines (July 2010).

Key assets

The developmental projects in which Royal Gold has the highest percentage claims are Wolverine, Yukon (9.445% of the gold and silver) and Pine Cove, Newfoundland (7.5% of the gold).
There are two molybdenum properties, one in Saskatchewan (Allan that has started producing) and another in British Columbia (Schaft Creek, not producing).

Andacollo, the property Royal has the highest stake in (75%) was estimated by Teck Resources to have 2P reserves (Proved + Probable) of 1.631 million ounces of gold. Voisey's Bay (3-4% royalty) has reserves of about 1.5 billion pounds of nickel, 873 million pounds of copper and 74 million pounds of cobalt.

Mines producing metals other than gold (Sept. 2010)

In the first nine months of 2010 the largest producing mines that it has a royalty interest on were Leeville for gold (321,247 ounces), Robinson for copper (83.1 million pounds), Penasquito for lead (56 million pounds), zinc (86.3 million pounds), nickel (37.2 million pounds) and silver (8.5 million ounces). In addition to the following properties there are another 19 in production that only produce gold.

Allan Sask Allan, Saskatchewan -External links:* *...	British Columbia British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...	Voisey's Bay Mine Labrador	El Toqui El Toqui mine El Toqui mine is a zinc-gold mine in Chile. The mine is owned by Breakwater Resources through its wholly owned subsidiary company Sociedad Contractul Minera el Toqui. The mine was purchased from Barrick Gold Corporation in 1997.... Chile	Robinson Nevada	Las Cruces Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...	Bolcooma, AUS Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...	Mt.Goode, AUS Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...	Dolorwes Mexico	Penasquito Mexico	Martha Argentina	KSM BC,Canada
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