NASDAQ:RGLD Royal Gold Q1 2024 Earnings Report $176.51 -1.57 (-0.88%) Closing price 05/2/2025 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$176.56 +0.06 (+0.03%) As of 05/2/2025 07:47 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Royal Gold EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.91Consensus EPS $0.95Beat/MissMissed by -$0.04One Year Ago EPS$0.96Royal Gold Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$148.90 millionExpected Revenue$147.02 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$1.88 millionYoY Revenue Growth-12.60%Royal Gold Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2024Date5/8/2024TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateThursday, May 9, 2024Conference Call Time12:00PM ETUpcoming EarningsRoyal Gold's Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Wednesday, May 7, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Thursday, May 8, 2025 at 12:00 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Royal Gold Q1 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrMay 9, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Hello, and welcome to the Royal Gold 20 24 First Quarter Conference. My name is Chatch, and I'll be your moderator today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. I'd now like to pass the conference over to your host, Alastair Baker to begin. Alastair, please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:24Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to our discussion of Royal Gold's Q1 2024 results. This event is being webcast live and a replay of this call will be available on our website. Speaking on the call today are Bill Heisenbuttel, President and CEO Martin Raffield, Senior Vice President of Operations and Paul Livner, Senior Vice President and CFO. Randy Sheffman, Senior Vice President and General Counsel and Dan Breeze, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development of RGAG are also available for questions. Speaker 100:00:55During today's call, we will make forward looking statements, including statements about our projections and expectations for the future. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in yesterday's press release and our filings with the SEC. We will also refer to certain non GAAP financial measures, including adjusted net income, adjusted net income per share and adjusted EBITDA. Reconciliations of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are available in yesterday's press release, which can be found on our website. Speaker 100:01:29Bill will start with an overview of the quarter, Martin will give some commentary on the portfolio, and Paul will provide a financial update. After the formal remarks, we'll open the lines for a Q and A session. I'll now turn the call over to Bill. Speaker 200:01:43Good morning, and thank you for joining the call. I'll begin on Slide 4. We had a good start to the year with revenue of $149,000,000 operating cash flow of $138,000,000 and earnings of $47,000,000 or $0.72 per share. After adjustments, earnings were $0.91 per share. Revenue was 75% gold and 88% precious metals as we continued to focus our business development efforts on these metals, and we generated 53% of revenue from the U. Speaker 200:02:13S, Canada and Australia. Our adjusted EBITDA margin remained strong and steady at 79% for the quarter. And with the record high gold price providing a strong tailwind, we were able to significantly reduce our debt and increase available liquidity. We repaid $100,000,000 outstanding on a revolving credit facility and ended the quarter with almost $1,000,000,000 of total liquidity. As previously disclosed, during the quarter, we entered into an additional agreement with Centerra to provide long term cost support at Mount Milligan in return for near term cash and future gold consideration and a future free cash flow royalty. Speaker 200:02:53This allowed an immediate 2 year extension to the mine life to 2,035 and provides the incentive for Centerra to continue to invest in the long term future and maximize the value of the large mineral endowment around the mine. Centerra is working on a PEA to evaluate opportunities to extend the mine life beyond 2,035, and we look forward to the results when it is completed in the first half of twenty twenty five. We also have a new operating partner, Comacao, with the completion of the acquisition of Comacao by MMG in March. Recall that we provided a $25,000,000 loan facility to the previous owner during the development of Khoemacau that accrued and capitalized interest at a rate of LIBOR plus 11%. This facility was repayable upon a change of control, and we received total proceeds of $37,000,000 including principal and capitalized interest. Speaker 200:03:46With these proceeds, the upfront cash payment from Centerra on the Milligan transaction and continued strong cash flow, we have made additional revolver repayments of $75,000,000 since the end of the quarter, bringing our outstanding revolver balance down to $75,000,000 We are well positioned to repay the remainder of the balance during the Q3 absent new investment opportunities. Maintaining a strong balance sheet is one of our core strategic objectives as it allows us to act quickly when attractive business development opportunities arise. We paid our quarterly dividend of $0.40 per share, a 7% increase over the previous quarter, marking the start of a 23rd straight year of paying an increased dividend. And finally, we issued our 1st asset handbook shortly after quarter end. And by the end of the week, we expect to publish our investment stewardship report, which is our reimagined publication that covers ESG risks and a separate climate report. Speaker 200:04:43All of these documents are currently or will be available on our website. These publications take an enormous effort from a staff that is limited in size, and I want to thank them for their efforts in preparing these reports. I hope you find them helpful in your review of our company. I'll now turn the call over to Martin to provide some comments on the portfolio. Speaker 300:05:04Thanks, Bill. Turning to Slide 5, I'll give some comments on Q1 revenue. Overall revenue for the quarter was $149,000,000 with volume of 71,900 GEOs. Our royalty segment contributed $46,000,000 about 31% of the total revenue for the quarter. Royalty revenue was down about 16% from the prior year quarter, mostly due to a lower contribution from the Cortez legacy zone as expected, partially offset by higher contributions from the Cortez CC zone and Penasquito. Speaker 300:05:40Revenue from our stream segment was $103,000,000 down by about 11% from last year. Lower contributions from Mount Milligan and Pueblo Viejo were partially offset by higher revenue from Zaventuna and Wassa. I'll turn to Slide 6 and give some comments on notable developments at our principal properties. At Mount Milligan, as Bill mentioned, the PEA is underway to evaluate opportunities to extend the mine life beyond 2,035. This includes a review of tailings expansion options, exploration drilling on a number of targets near the existing pit and a site optimization program that began late last year. Speaker 300:06:20Centerra believes the large mineral endowment at Mount Milligan has the potential to provide significant extensions to the mine life. At Pueblo Viejo Barrick reported last week that the plant expansion construction is complete and that the ore stockpile feed conveyor reconstruction was completed in April. They are now working on increasing production from the crushing and milling in the flotation circuits. An additional 123,000 ounces of silver was deferred during the quarter due to low recoveries. We expect the focus on the flotation circuit performance will improve silver recovery, but we also expect this work will take some time and that the delivery of our deferred silver ounces will depend on the outcome. Speaker 300:07:07At Cortez, Barrick announced the official opening of the new Goldrush mine. Barrick expects to ramp up production from 130,000 ounces this year to reach commercial production in 2026. Barrick is targeting a 24 year mine life and average annual production of about 400,000 ounces by 2028. Barrick also reported last week that production at Cortez was on plan for the Q1 and they maintain their total Cortez production guidance of 620 to 680,000 ounces for 2024. We expect about a third of this will come from the Crossroads area, where we have an effective gross royalty rate of approximately 9.4% with the remainder coming from areas where our effective gross royalty growth royalty rate is approximately 1.6% including Goldrush. Speaker 300:07:59Last year those percentages were more heavily weighted towards our legacy zone and the higher royalty rate. Turning to Slide 7, at Andacollo, Teck has reported that drought conditions are continuing to cause water restrictions. Teck is assessing steps to mitigate these water restriction risks and expects a solution to be in place in 2025. Gold production guidance for 2024 is between 18,000 and 24,000 recovered ounces. At Penasquito operations have returned to normal after last year's labor strike. Speaker 300:08:34Newmont reported that stripping at the Penasquito pit was delayed due to the strike, but it expects all production from Penasco to increase later this year and into next year. As a result, gold production is expected to be weighted 60% to the second half of the year with continued strong silver lead and zinc production from the Chile, Colorado pit. At Comecao, the ownership transition to MMG is now complete. MMG is a publicly listed company, so we expect public disclosure of developments will be significantly improved. Comecer is expecting payable silver production of 1,200,000 to 1,400,000 ounces for 2024. Speaker 300:09:15This is lower than the life of mine average silver production of 1,800,000 to 2,000,000 ounces per year, but it is in line with the mine plan, which has a top down mining sequence with lower grades in the upper portion of the deposit. And finally, first gold was poured in the Q1 at Maro Rosa in Brazil and Cote Gold in Ontario, which are our newest producing properties. We also saw continued progress towards full production at King of the Hills and Bellevue mines in Western Australia and we expect to see first production from Manchow in Alaska early in Q3 of the year. I'll now turn the call over to Paul for a review of our financial results. Speaker 400:09:56Thanks, Martin. I'll now turn to Slide 8 and give an overview of the financial results for the quarter. For this discussion, I'll be comparing the quarter ended March 31, 2024 to the prior year quarter. Revenue was down 13% to $149,000,000 for the quarter. We had a strong Q1 of 2023. Speaker 400:10:14In fact, it was the 2nd highest quarterly revenue in the history of the company. And as Martin mentioned in his remarks, lower contributions from Mount Milligan, Pueblo Viejo and the Cortez legacy zone were the main drivers for the lower revenue in the current quarter. The lower contributions from these properties were partially offset by higher contributions from Wassa and Zaventina as well as higher average gold and silver prices. Gold and silver were up 10% and 4%, respectively, while copper was down 5% over the prior period. As Bill mentioned, gold continues to be the dominant revenue source making up 75% of our total revenue for the quarter, followed by silver 13% and copper at 9%. Speaker 400:10:55Royal Gold has the highest gold revenue percentage compared to our major peers in the royalty and streaming sector. Turning to Slide 9, I'll provide a bit more detail on the specific line items for the quarter. G and A expense increased slightly to $11,400,000 from $11,000,000 in the prior year quarter. The slight increase was due to higher corporate costs and non cash stock compensation expense. Although we did see a small increase over the prior year, our cash G and A costs remain low as an overall percentage of total revenue. Speaker 400:11:26Our D and A expense decreased to $39,000,000 from $46,000,000 in the prior year. On a unit basis, this expense was $5.39 per GEO for the quarter compared to $5.14 per GEO in the prior year. The higher D and A per unit was mostly due to lower GEO sold in the current period. The lower overall depletion expense, however, was due to a decrease in our Mount Milligan gold depletion rate from $4.25 to $3.71 per ounce, as well as a decrease in copper and gold sales from Mount Milligan and lower production from the Cortez legacy zone. Interest expense decreased nearly 50 percent to $4,600,000 for the quarter. Speaker 400:12:06The decrease was primarily due to lower average amounts outstanding on the revolving credit facility. The all in interest rate for outstanding borrowings under our credit facility was 6.5% at the end of March. Tax expense for the quarter was $27,000,000 resulting in an effective tax rate of 36.4 percent. This compares to tax expense of $15,900,000 and an effective tax rate of 19.9 percent in the prior year. The higher tax expense this quarter was due to a one time discrete tax expense of $13,000,000 related to consideration received from the Mount Milligan cost support agreement. Speaker 400:12:43Excluding this discrete item, our effective tax rate for the quarter was approximately 19%, which is in line with the prior year period and our expectations for the full year. Net income for the quarter was down over the prior year to $47,000,000 or $0.72 per share. The decrease in net income was due to lower revenue and the discrete tax item I just mentioned. After adjusting for the discrete tax item and a small change in the fair value of equity securities, net income for the quarter was $60,000,000 or $0.91 per share. Our operating cash flow was a record this quarter at $138,000,000 and up 27% over the prior year period. Speaker 400:13:22Operating cash flow for the current quarter included payments of $24,500,000 as part of the Mount Milligan cost support agreement and $12,000,000 in capitalized interest received as part of the Khoemacau loan facility repayment. And the strong cash flow does not even include the $25,000,000 we received as repayment of principal on the Come Call loan, which is recorded under cash from investing activities. I'd like to take a moment now to explain the accounting treatment of the Mount Milligan cost support agreement. When we entered into the agreement, we received a cash payment, the commitment by Centerra to deliver 50,000 ounces of gold in the future and a free cash flow interest. With respect to the value of the cash consideration and the free cash flow interest, these have been recorded as a $25,000,000 deferred support liability on the balance sheet. Speaker 400:14:09This amount will be amortized on units of production basis over the Mount Milligan mine life beginning with the first cost support payment made, which we expect will be around 2,030. With respect to the deferred gold consideration, when the gold is received, we will bring these ounces onto our balance sheet at fair market value. When the ounces are subsequently sold or upon receipt of the gold prior to any sale, we expect the value will also be recorded within the deferred support liability and amortized on the units of production basis as we provide future cost support over the mine life at Mount Milligan. It is important to note that when we subsequently sell the deferred gold ounces, the proceeds will be recognized within other operating income and not recognized as royalty or stream revenue. Upon delivery of the deferred gold ounces, we anticipate selling gold over a few days to a week following delivery. Speaker 400:14:59Finally, proceeds from the sale of the deferred gold ounces will be recognized as operating cash flow. I will now turn to Slide 10 and provide a summary of our financial position as of March 31. During the quarter, we repaid $100,000,000 on our revolving credit facility and reduced the amount drawn to $150,000,000 bringing our total available liquidity to $966,000,000 as of March 31. Further, using the cash received as part of the Khoemacau loan repayment in late March as well as our cash on hand, we made an additional revolver payment of $25,000,000 on April 8 and another $50,000,000 payment yesterday, leaving us with $75,000,000 outstanding and $925,000,000 undrawn and available. Absent significant business development activity and as cash flow allows, we expect to fully repay our remaining revolver balance by sometime early in Q3. Speaker 400:15:52We have no material financial commitments outstanding. However, I will note that we made a small advance payment of $1,100,000 to Arrow Copper as part of the success based payment for resource additions at Zaventina. There are potentially up to $3,300,000 of further success based payments to Arrow that remain through the end of 2024. That concludes my comments on our financial position for the quarter, and I will now turn the call back to Bill for closing comments. Speaker 200:16:19Thanks, Paul. Our Q1 was as expected, and I'm pleased to see our strong margins continue to produce solid cash flow so that we can reduce our outstanding revolver balance so quickly. Our balance sheet is in great shape, and we have excellent liquidity available to take advantage of business development opportunities that may present themselves. Before we wrap up, I want to highlight a change we made in our disclosure this quarter to improve transparency with respect to our performance compared to guidance. We have included a new table, Table 3, in our press release that shows our 2024 sales guidance and actual sales through the end of the quarter. Speaker 200:16:56This replaces a table that showed operator guidance and production for our principal properties, which is less helpful for a reader who is trying to track Royal Gold's performance. You can see that we're tracking well so far with respect to sales guidance for the year, and we'll update this table every quarter as we move through the year. Operator, that concludes our prepared remarks. I'll now open the line for questions. Operator00:17:21Thank Our first question today comes from Cosmos Chiu from CIBC. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:17:49Hi, thanks, Bill and Tiu. Maybe my first question is on, again, the discrete tax expense related to the Mount Milligan cost support agreementthe guilty tax. Paul, I think you confirmed that this is a one time item, so we're not going to see a recurring item again later on in future quarters. My other question is, is there an actual cash impact to this expense? Maybe not today, but over time, like how should we look at this $12,980,000 Speaker 400:18:35Yes, so Cosmos, this was a unique transaction, whereby the book and the tax accounting differed. So under the U. S. Income inclusion rules for tax purposes, the value of that consideration that we received when we entered into the transaction, it was immediately taxable and that's that $13,000,000 that was taxed at the GILTI rate. That is a one time, as you asked. Speaker 400:19:01So again, that value of that consideration that we received during the transaction, again for tax purposes, was roughly $125,000,000 So going forward, if when we receive the value or when we see the gold in the future, the deferred ounces, if the value of that gold should increase significantly, then we would have some additional cash taxes that we tax that GILTI rate in the future. But also having said that, if that value of the gold Speaker 500:19:32should go down, then we would Speaker 400:19:32also have a tax benefit potentially. Speaker 500:19:37Great. And then maybe my other question is on the Comacao. As you talked about Bill, there's a new operator in town now. Have you had a chance to meet the new operator? And what are your impressions so far? Speaker 200:19:56Yes, Cosmos, we've had a chance to meet him a couple of times, both over the phone, but also in person. Look, I'm impressed by the folks that we've met, but the relationship is sort of in the earlier stages and looking forward to further developing that relationship. So I don't have any concerns if that's your question about MMG and the plans for the project and how they plan on treating us. Speaker 500:20:28Great. Thanks once again, Bill and team. Those are all the questions I have. Speaker 200:20:34Thanks, Cosmos. Operator00:20:37The next question is from Tanya Jakusconek from Scotiabank. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:20:46Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for taking my questions. Atu, I just wanted to start by saying a lot of your we had the Investor Day, so a lot of detail was provided in the Investor Day. But I thought maybe someone could walk us through the rest of the portfolio, your smaller royalties and streams and others and kind of give us a little bit of a lookout into how these could add in the next sort of 5 years or so. We have the big mines, so those ones we have a better idea, but there's a lot of smaller ones. Speaker 600:21:22And so it would be helpful to know what those could contribute. Speaker 200:21:29Thanks, Tanya. I might turn that over to Martin. I will say we don't spend a lot of time on some of the smaller ones. But Martin, I don't know if there are a few things you could share, particularly about maybe some of the newer ones Cote and Marrosa? Speaker 300:21:47Yes. Thanks for the question, Tanya. So looking forward towards the end of this year, I think we are expecting things to strengthen as we go towards the end of 2024 and 2025 and we are expecting PV to ramp up. We're expecting Penasquito to have improved gold production. We're expecting Goldrush to ramp up. Speaker 300:22:09So those are key in our forward looking side. But we do have some of our smaller operations that are also coming online. So Manchow, Kinross reported yesterday that, that project is going well. They have started the ore haulage over to the Fort Knox site. So we're looking to that to start up early in Q3 and to start receiving revenue there over the next few years. Speaker 300:22:40The Cote ramp up has started. They bought 1st gold on March 31. So that is moving ahead. They're looking to get to commercial production in Q3. And Maro Rossa, they produced their first gold on February 21st and they're looking to ramp up to commercial production over the next few weeks. Speaker 300:23:02So they're looking in the longer term or in the short term in 2024, 83,000 to 93,000 ounces and then ramping up to 100,000 ounces over the first 4 years of operation. So those ones are going well. The other ones that I would mention are probably Bellevue. Very good exploration results out of Bellevue and good definition drilling results over the past quarter. So we're expecting good things there over the next few years. Speaker 300:23:33So that's those are the ones that jumped to mind, Tanya. Speaker 600:23:38Yes. It's just these ones are the operators are well covered. I was kind of thinking more of some of the smaller ones, but we could take it offline and see. I knew a couple of years ago, you had talked about some of these smaller ones contributing anywhere between 10,025,000 GEOs or thereabout. Obviously, some of them are in here. Speaker 600:24:01I was just kind of wondering if there was some smaller ones beyond the ones you just mentioned now that we should be thinking about that would contribute above and beyond these ones? Okay. Yes. We can take Speaker 200:24:16it offline. And if there are any specific assets you're looking at, we'd be happy to respond. Speaker 700:24:22Just want to hit the ones you're interested in. Yes, specific ones. Speaker 600:24:28Yes. Just because those ones we cover already from the operator, so we kind of well know those ones and those are already in our models. I'm just wondering maybe there are some smaller ones that we can get to, but we'll take it offline. My second question is just on the transaction environment, if I could. Every call I ask every company, what they're seeing out there. Speaker 600:24:53I asked again, I know in the Investor Day, but wanted to circle back because it's very dynamic. So wanted to hear from you again today, what are you seeing size wise for deals? Hopefully by now Newmont have put and open the data room for these Newcrest and other assets for sale. So just wanted to see size wise, understand whether it's still mine bills, financing, balance sheet repairs. And then I want to understand the structure of the deals, whether you're focused mainly on just royalty streams or would you also look at equity and or debt components? Speaker 600:25:37So that would be helpful. Thank you. Speaker 200:25:40Sure. Lots to unpack there. I the one comment I'm going to turn this over to Dan. The one comment I would say is we're not going to comment on anything specific that we might be looking at, but Dan can certainly give you a feel for what we're seeing. Speaker 700:25:56Sure, Bill. Hi, good morning, Tanya. Thanks for the question. And I think you've heard this from some of our peers probably already with their comments. The pipeline is pretty robust at the moment. Speaker 700:26:10I think that's the best way to describe We're quite busy right now with reviews on a number of opportunities. And I think the higher commodity prices are really starting to settle in, Tanya, and I think that's moving projects forward. And I think we're seeing the equity markets really opening up and that source of capital is coming into the sector and that's helping projects move forward as well. And I think as we look at the debt markets and thinking out and looking at where interest rates are and where they might remain elevated for a while, I think that's also going to keep counterparties interested with looking at other sources of capital like royalties and streams. So I always tell you that the size range, Tonya, is the $100,000,000 to $300,000,000 level. Speaker 700:26:58I think that's broadly fair still here. We are aware of a few larger opportunities in the market. And I think it's fair to say that those opportunities are generally related to improving balance sheets and liquidity and so forth, mainly over base metal assets. So we would be looking at byproduct, precious metals in those cases. But I'd also just mention, you heard from Paul in his comments on our liquidity, and we have lots of internal liquidity with almost $1,000,000,000 to look at those kinds of transactions as well. Speaker 700:27:34So we feel pretty good about the market. On the smaller end, it's still very busy for us. I mentioned the equity opening up a little bit, but there are some interesting sub-one $100,000,000 type opportunities, earlier stage projects and whatnot that we're looking at as well. So hopefully, that gives you a little bit of flavor from our side with what we're seeing. Speaker 200:27:58Yes, let me just complete the last part of your question, which was doing equity and debt. And I think we've been pretty consistent. We're relatively open to it. It's not our core business. We wouldn't earn our valuation premium on a debt investment Speaker 500:28:16or an equity investment. At the same time, if Speaker 200:28:16the price is the an overall financing package where we can provide all of those things. But we're certainly open to it. You've seen us do debt at Comeco and Wassa. So certainly wouldn't close the door on it and say we're not going to play in those markets, but the stream's got to be the prize. Speaker 600:28:46Okay. Okay. Thank you so much for taking my questions. I will let somebody else ask. Thank you so much. Speaker 200:28:53Thanks, Tanya. Operator00:28:56Thank you. Our next question comes from Brian MacArthur from Raymond James. Please go ahead. Speaker 800:29:12Good morning and thank you for taking my questions. Just back to Cosmos' question about the tax. So if I understand this right, you paid $13,000,000 in tax on the $25,000,000 cash payment from Centerra. Is that all cash? And secondly, like why is the tax rate so high on that? Speaker 200:29:34Paul, I'm going to hand Speaker 500:29:35that right back to you. Speaker 400:29:36Yes. No, and it's a fair question. And again, this really goes back to that, the accounting and the tax on this transaction, it was unique. And it was unique in the sense that the treatments differed. So for U. Speaker 400:29:54S. Income tax purposes, the U. S. Income inclusion rules, the value of the consideration that we've received when we entered in the transaction, that was immediately taxable. And again, the consideration that we received was the $24,500,000 the value of the 50,000 deferred gold ounces as well as the free cash flow interest. Speaker 400:30:15So when we took that entire value, which the majority of that was the value of the deferred gold, which I think was roughly $2,000 an ounce when we entered in the transaction, it's about $100,000,000 So that's $125,000,000 So then you apply the GILTI rate to that, which is at 13% and that gets you roughly to that $13,000,000 that we paid in taxes there in Q1. Speaker 800:30:40And that was all cash? Speaker 400:30:43Correct. Speaker 800:30:44Not deferred or anything. So you don't okay. Speaker 400:30:47Correct. Yes. And then as I mentioned to Cosmos, going into the future, again, that value of that deferred gold, it could go up. And if that happens, then at a future date when we receive the delivery of those gold ounces, we could pay that same cash tax, the GILTI rate 13% in the future. But on the flip side, again, too, if we if that value should go down, then we could see a cash tax benefit come through. Speaker 800:31:16Okay. But we're talking all cash to this, not just book accounting? Speaker 300:31:21Correct. Speaker 800:31:22Okay. My second question and maybe this is better offline. It talks about you got to the cash consideration of and then cash flow interest received of 25,000,000 dollars Why is it $500,000 for that free cash flow interest? I assume that's calculated on an NPV basis post 2,030 or something. But on the offset of that, you might have to make cost component support payments. Speaker 800:31:54So like if it's too complicated, we'd take it offline. But like I just not quite sure I understand where those values came from. And the reason I asked is I'm still trying to figure out the value of the deal, right? Because there's if it's cash tax payments, it changes what the value of the deal is. Speaker 200:32:12Yes, Brian, let me just focus on the free cash flow royalty a little bit. Okay, that was, as I called it, when I asked for it, it's idiot insurance, right? The metal prices go up so high, they didn't actually need our cost support. The mine would have been fine and we didn't need to change anything. And so all we wanted was something that says, if the metal prices go up really, really high and this thing is making cash flow is cash flowing, I want to share in it, even to a small amount. Speaker 200:32:41And it's carried. We don't have to contribute to costs. It's not a joint venture interest or anything like that. And I will say that when we were doing our calculation at the time and at the prices, the long term prices we were using, there just wasn't a lot of free cash flow that we thought might be there. And so we really heavily discounted it and we just came up with a value of $500,000 Now today's price is probably worth more. Speaker 200:33:06But that it's pretty far in the future because you get to 2,030, they've got to be thinking about expanding the tailings storage facility. There are going to be costs that will be incurred that would get deducted from any free cash flow interest. So it was just it was something I wanted just so we didn't look kind of dumb for giving up something today if we didn't need to 5 or 6 years from now. Speaker 800:33:32No, it makes sense to me. In fact, I was trying to think about it the other way because if you extend the mine through the 20, 40 or 50 or 60, then doesn't that thing become quite valuable? Speaker 200:33:43It could be, but all we've got right now is a 2 year extension of reserves and they're working on a PEA. So that might be a conversation to have when the PEA comes out. Right. Okay. Speaker 800:33:53So that was kind of calculated 2,035, I get that. Speaker 200:33:56Okay. That helps a lot. Speaker 800:33:57Thanks very much, Bill. That makes that clears it up. Thank Speaker 100:34:00you. Thanks, Brian. Operator00:34:04Thank you. We currently have no further questions. So I'd like to hand back to Bill Huysenbuttel to conclude. Speaker 200:34:25Well, thanks everyone for taking the time to join us today. We certainly appreciate your interest in Royal Gold and we look forward to updating you on our progress during the next quarterly call. Take care. Operator00:34:38This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your line.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallRoyal Gold Q1 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Royal Gold Earnings HeadlinesRoyal Gold (RGLD) bullish nest for a break above $200.00April 25, 2025 | fxstreet.comRoyal Gold Announces Publication of the 2024 Editions of the Asset Handbook and Investment Stewardship ReportApril 23, 2025 | finance.yahoo.comTrump to redistribute trillions of dollars Trump’s Final Reset Inside the shocking plot to re-engineer America’s financial system…and why you need to move your money now.May 4, 2025 | Porter & Company (Ad)Bank of America Securities Reaffirms Their Sell Rating on Royal Gold (RGLD)April 22, 2025 | markets.businessinsider.comRoyal Gold Stock Dividends | NASDAQ:RGLD | BenzingaApril 20, 2025 | benzinga.comRoyal Gold Revises Executive Employment ContractApril 18, 2025 | tipranks.comSee More Royal Gold Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Royal Gold? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Royal Gold and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Royal GoldRoyal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD), together with its subsidiaries, acquires and manages precious metal streams, royalties, and related interests. The company engages in acquiring stream and royalty interests or to finance projects that are in production, development, or in the exploration stage in exchange for stream or royalty interests, which primarily consists of gold, silver, copper, nickel, zinc, lead, and other metals. Its stream and royalty interests on properties are located in the United States, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Australia, Africa, Mexico, Botswana, and internationally. 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There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Hello, and welcome to the Royal Gold 20 24 First Quarter Conference. My name is Chatch, and I'll be your moderator today. All lines will be muted during the presentation portion of the call with an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. I'd now like to pass the conference over to your host, Alastair Baker to begin. Alastair, please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:24Thank you, operator. Good morning, and welcome to our discussion of Royal Gold's Q1 2024 results. This event is being webcast live and a replay of this call will be available on our website. Speaking on the call today are Bill Heisenbuttel, President and CEO Martin Raffield, Senior Vice President of Operations and Paul Livner, Senior Vice President and CFO. Randy Sheffman, Senior Vice President and General Counsel and Dan Breeze, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development of RGAG are also available for questions. Speaker 100:00:55During today's call, we will make forward looking statements, including statements about our projections and expectations for the future. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. These risks and uncertainties are discussed in yesterday's press release and our filings with the SEC. We will also refer to certain non GAAP financial measures, including adjusted net income, adjusted net income per share and adjusted EBITDA. Reconciliations of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are available in yesterday's press release, which can be found on our website. Speaker 100:01:29Bill will start with an overview of the quarter, Martin will give some commentary on the portfolio, and Paul will provide a financial update. After the formal remarks, we'll open the lines for a Q and A session. I'll now turn the call over to Bill. Speaker 200:01:43Good morning, and thank you for joining the call. I'll begin on Slide 4. We had a good start to the year with revenue of $149,000,000 operating cash flow of $138,000,000 and earnings of $47,000,000 or $0.72 per share. After adjustments, earnings were $0.91 per share. Revenue was 75% gold and 88% precious metals as we continued to focus our business development efforts on these metals, and we generated 53% of revenue from the U. Speaker 200:02:13S, Canada and Australia. Our adjusted EBITDA margin remained strong and steady at 79% for the quarter. And with the record high gold price providing a strong tailwind, we were able to significantly reduce our debt and increase available liquidity. We repaid $100,000,000 outstanding on a revolving credit facility and ended the quarter with almost $1,000,000,000 of total liquidity. As previously disclosed, during the quarter, we entered into an additional agreement with Centerra to provide long term cost support at Mount Milligan in return for near term cash and future gold consideration and a future free cash flow royalty. Speaker 200:02:53This allowed an immediate 2 year extension to the mine life to 2,035 and provides the incentive for Centerra to continue to invest in the long term future and maximize the value of the large mineral endowment around the mine. Centerra is working on a PEA to evaluate opportunities to extend the mine life beyond 2,035, and we look forward to the results when it is completed in the first half of twenty twenty five. We also have a new operating partner, Comacao, with the completion of the acquisition of Comacao by MMG in March. Recall that we provided a $25,000,000 loan facility to the previous owner during the development of Khoemacau that accrued and capitalized interest at a rate of LIBOR plus 11%. This facility was repayable upon a change of control, and we received total proceeds of $37,000,000 including principal and capitalized interest. Speaker 200:03:46With these proceeds, the upfront cash payment from Centerra on the Milligan transaction and continued strong cash flow, we have made additional revolver repayments of $75,000,000 since the end of the quarter, bringing our outstanding revolver balance down to $75,000,000 We are well positioned to repay the remainder of the balance during the Q3 absent new investment opportunities. Maintaining a strong balance sheet is one of our core strategic objectives as it allows us to act quickly when attractive business development opportunities arise. We paid our quarterly dividend of $0.40 per share, a 7% increase over the previous quarter, marking the start of a 23rd straight year of paying an increased dividend. And finally, we issued our 1st asset handbook shortly after quarter end. And by the end of the week, we expect to publish our investment stewardship report, which is our reimagined publication that covers ESG risks and a separate climate report. Speaker 200:04:43All of these documents are currently or will be available on our website. These publications take an enormous effort from a staff that is limited in size, and I want to thank them for their efforts in preparing these reports. I hope you find them helpful in your review of our company. I'll now turn the call over to Martin to provide some comments on the portfolio. Speaker 300:05:04Thanks, Bill. Turning to Slide 5, I'll give some comments on Q1 revenue. Overall revenue for the quarter was $149,000,000 with volume of 71,900 GEOs. Our royalty segment contributed $46,000,000 about 31% of the total revenue for the quarter. Royalty revenue was down about 16% from the prior year quarter, mostly due to a lower contribution from the Cortez legacy zone as expected, partially offset by higher contributions from the Cortez CC zone and Penasquito. Speaker 300:05:40Revenue from our stream segment was $103,000,000 down by about 11% from last year. Lower contributions from Mount Milligan and Pueblo Viejo were partially offset by higher revenue from Zaventuna and Wassa. I'll turn to Slide 6 and give some comments on notable developments at our principal properties. At Mount Milligan, as Bill mentioned, the PEA is underway to evaluate opportunities to extend the mine life beyond 2,035. This includes a review of tailings expansion options, exploration drilling on a number of targets near the existing pit and a site optimization program that began late last year. Speaker 300:06:20Centerra believes the large mineral endowment at Mount Milligan has the potential to provide significant extensions to the mine life. At Pueblo Viejo Barrick reported last week that the plant expansion construction is complete and that the ore stockpile feed conveyor reconstruction was completed in April. They are now working on increasing production from the crushing and milling in the flotation circuits. An additional 123,000 ounces of silver was deferred during the quarter due to low recoveries. We expect the focus on the flotation circuit performance will improve silver recovery, but we also expect this work will take some time and that the delivery of our deferred silver ounces will depend on the outcome. Speaker 300:07:07At Cortez, Barrick announced the official opening of the new Goldrush mine. Barrick expects to ramp up production from 130,000 ounces this year to reach commercial production in 2026. Barrick is targeting a 24 year mine life and average annual production of about 400,000 ounces by 2028. Barrick also reported last week that production at Cortez was on plan for the Q1 and they maintain their total Cortez production guidance of 620 to 680,000 ounces for 2024. We expect about a third of this will come from the Crossroads area, where we have an effective gross royalty rate of approximately 9.4% with the remainder coming from areas where our effective gross royalty growth royalty rate is approximately 1.6% including Goldrush. Speaker 300:07:59Last year those percentages were more heavily weighted towards our legacy zone and the higher royalty rate. Turning to Slide 7, at Andacollo, Teck has reported that drought conditions are continuing to cause water restrictions. Teck is assessing steps to mitigate these water restriction risks and expects a solution to be in place in 2025. Gold production guidance for 2024 is between 18,000 and 24,000 recovered ounces. At Penasquito operations have returned to normal after last year's labor strike. Speaker 300:08:34Newmont reported that stripping at the Penasquito pit was delayed due to the strike, but it expects all production from Penasco to increase later this year and into next year. As a result, gold production is expected to be weighted 60% to the second half of the year with continued strong silver lead and zinc production from the Chile, Colorado pit. At Comecao, the ownership transition to MMG is now complete. MMG is a publicly listed company, so we expect public disclosure of developments will be significantly improved. Comecer is expecting payable silver production of 1,200,000 to 1,400,000 ounces for 2024. Speaker 300:09:15This is lower than the life of mine average silver production of 1,800,000 to 2,000,000 ounces per year, but it is in line with the mine plan, which has a top down mining sequence with lower grades in the upper portion of the deposit. And finally, first gold was poured in the Q1 at Maro Rosa in Brazil and Cote Gold in Ontario, which are our newest producing properties. We also saw continued progress towards full production at King of the Hills and Bellevue mines in Western Australia and we expect to see first production from Manchow in Alaska early in Q3 of the year. I'll now turn the call over to Paul for a review of our financial results. Speaker 400:09:56Thanks, Martin. I'll now turn to Slide 8 and give an overview of the financial results for the quarter. For this discussion, I'll be comparing the quarter ended March 31, 2024 to the prior year quarter. Revenue was down 13% to $149,000,000 for the quarter. We had a strong Q1 of 2023. Speaker 400:10:14In fact, it was the 2nd highest quarterly revenue in the history of the company. And as Martin mentioned in his remarks, lower contributions from Mount Milligan, Pueblo Viejo and the Cortez legacy zone were the main drivers for the lower revenue in the current quarter. The lower contributions from these properties were partially offset by higher contributions from Wassa and Zaventina as well as higher average gold and silver prices. Gold and silver were up 10% and 4%, respectively, while copper was down 5% over the prior period. As Bill mentioned, gold continues to be the dominant revenue source making up 75% of our total revenue for the quarter, followed by silver 13% and copper at 9%. Speaker 400:10:55Royal Gold has the highest gold revenue percentage compared to our major peers in the royalty and streaming sector. Turning to Slide 9, I'll provide a bit more detail on the specific line items for the quarter. G and A expense increased slightly to $11,400,000 from $11,000,000 in the prior year quarter. The slight increase was due to higher corporate costs and non cash stock compensation expense. Although we did see a small increase over the prior year, our cash G and A costs remain low as an overall percentage of total revenue. Speaker 400:11:26Our D and A expense decreased to $39,000,000 from $46,000,000 in the prior year. On a unit basis, this expense was $5.39 per GEO for the quarter compared to $5.14 per GEO in the prior year. The higher D and A per unit was mostly due to lower GEO sold in the current period. The lower overall depletion expense, however, was due to a decrease in our Mount Milligan gold depletion rate from $4.25 to $3.71 per ounce, as well as a decrease in copper and gold sales from Mount Milligan and lower production from the Cortez legacy zone. Interest expense decreased nearly 50 percent to $4,600,000 for the quarter. Speaker 400:12:06The decrease was primarily due to lower average amounts outstanding on the revolving credit facility. The all in interest rate for outstanding borrowings under our credit facility was 6.5% at the end of March. Tax expense for the quarter was $27,000,000 resulting in an effective tax rate of 36.4 percent. This compares to tax expense of $15,900,000 and an effective tax rate of 19.9 percent in the prior year. The higher tax expense this quarter was due to a one time discrete tax expense of $13,000,000 related to consideration received from the Mount Milligan cost support agreement. Speaker 400:12:43Excluding this discrete item, our effective tax rate for the quarter was approximately 19%, which is in line with the prior year period and our expectations for the full year. Net income for the quarter was down over the prior year to $47,000,000 or $0.72 per share. The decrease in net income was due to lower revenue and the discrete tax item I just mentioned. After adjusting for the discrete tax item and a small change in the fair value of equity securities, net income for the quarter was $60,000,000 or $0.91 per share. Our operating cash flow was a record this quarter at $138,000,000 and up 27% over the prior year period. Speaker 400:13:22Operating cash flow for the current quarter included payments of $24,500,000 as part of the Mount Milligan cost support agreement and $12,000,000 in capitalized interest received as part of the Khoemacau loan facility repayment. And the strong cash flow does not even include the $25,000,000 we received as repayment of principal on the Come Call loan, which is recorded under cash from investing activities. I'd like to take a moment now to explain the accounting treatment of the Mount Milligan cost support agreement. When we entered into the agreement, we received a cash payment, the commitment by Centerra to deliver 50,000 ounces of gold in the future and a free cash flow interest. With respect to the value of the cash consideration and the free cash flow interest, these have been recorded as a $25,000,000 deferred support liability on the balance sheet. Speaker 400:14:09This amount will be amortized on units of production basis over the Mount Milligan mine life beginning with the first cost support payment made, which we expect will be around 2,030. With respect to the deferred gold consideration, when the gold is received, we will bring these ounces onto our balance sheet at fair market value. When the ounces are subsequently sold or upon receipt of the gold prior to any sale, we expect the value will also be recorded within the deferred support liability and amortized on the units of production basis as we provide future cost support over the mine life at Mount Milligan. It is important to note that when we subsequently sell the deferred gold ounces, the proceeds will be recognized within other operating income and not recognized as royalty or stream revenue. Upon delivery of the deferred gold ounces, we anticipate selling gold over a few days to a week following delivery. Speaker 400:14:59Finally, proceeds from the sale of the deferred gold ounces will be recognized as operating cash flow. I will now turn to Slide 10 and provide a summary of our financial position as of March 31. During the quarter, we repaid $100,000,000 on our revolving credit facility and reduced the amount drawn to $150,000,000 bringing our total available liquidity to $966,000,000 as of March 31. Further, using the cash received as part of the Khoemacau loan repayment in late March as well as our cash on hand, we made an additional revolver payment of $25,000,000 on April 8 and another $50,000,000 payment yesterday, leaving us with $75,000,000 outstanding and $925,000,000 undrawn and available. Absent significant business development activity and as cash flow allows, we expect to fully repay our remaining revolver balance by sometime early in Q3. Speaker 400:15:52We have no material financial commitments outstanding. However, I will note that we made a small advance payment of $1,100,000 to Arrow Copper as part of the success based payment for resource additions at Zaventina. There are potentially up to $3,300,000 of further success based payments to Arrow that remain through the end of 2024. That concludes my comments on our financial position for the quarter, and I will now turn the call back to Bill for closing comments. Speaker 200:16:19Thanks, Paul. Our Q1 was as expected, and I'm pleased to see our strong margins continue to produce solid cash flow so that we can reduce our outstanding revolver balance so quickly. Our balance sheet is in great shape, and we have excellent liquidity available to take advantage of business development opportunities that may present themselves. Before we wrap up, I want to highlight a change we made in our disclosure this quarter to improve transparency with respect to our performance compared to guidance. We have included a new table, Table 3, in our press release that shows our 2024 sales guidance and actual sales through the end of the quarter. Speaker 200:16:56This replaces a table that showed operator guidance and production for our principal properties, which is less helpful for a reader who is trying to track Royal Gold's performance. You can see that we're tracking well so far with respect to sales guidance for the year, and we'll update this table every quarter as we move through the year. Operator, that concludes our prepared remarks. I'll now open the line for questions. Operator00:17:21Thank Our first question today comes from Cosmos Chiu from CIBC. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:17:49Hi, thanks, Bill and Tiu. Maybe my first question is on, again, the discrete tax expense related to the Mount Milligan cost support agreementthe guilty tax. Paul, I think you confirmed that this is a one time item, so we're not going to see a recurring item again later on in future quarters. My other question is, is there an actual cash impact to this expense? Maybe not today, but over time, like how should we look at this $12,980,000 Speaker 400:18:35Yes, so Cosmos, this was a unique transaction, whereby the book and the tax accounting differed. So under the U. S. Income inclusion rules for tax purposes, the value of that consideration that we received when we entered into the transaction, it was immediately taxable and that's that $13,000,000 that was taxed at the GILTI rate. That is a one time, as you asked. Speaker 400:19:01So again, that value of that consideration that we received during the transaction, again for tax purposes, was roughly $125,000,000 So going forward, if when we receive the value or when we see the gold in the future, the deferred ounces, if the value of that gold should increase significantly, then we would have some additional cash taxes that we tax that GILTI rate in the future. But also having said that, if that value of the gold Speaker 500:19:32should go down, then we would Speaker 400:19:32also have a tax benefit potentially. Speaker 500:19:37Great. And then maybe my other question is on the Comacao. As you talked about Bill, there's a new operator in town now. Have you had a chance to meet the new operator? And what are your impressions so far? Speaker 200:19:56Yes, Cosmos, we've had a chance to meet him a couple of times, both over the phone, but also in person. Look, I'm impressed by the folks that we've met, but the relationship is sort of in the earlier stages and looking forward to further developing that relationship. So I don't have any concerns if that's your question about MMG and the plans for the project and how they plan on treating us. Speaker 500:20:28Great. Thanks once again, Bill and team. Those are all the questions I have. Speaker 200:20:34Thanks, Cosmos. Operator00:20:37The next question is from Tanya Jakusconek from Scotiabank. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:20:46Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for taking my questions. Atu, I just wanted to start by saying a lot of your we had the Investor Day, so a lot of detail was provided in the Investor Day. But I thought maybe someone could walk us through the rest of the portfolio, your smaller royalties and streams and others and kind of give us a little bit of a lookout into how these could add in the next sort of 5 years or so. We have the big mines, so those ones we have a better idea, but there's a lot of smaller ones. Speaker 600:21:22And so it would be helpful to know what those could contribute. Speaker 200:21:29Thanks, Tanya. I might turn that over to Martin. I will say we don't spend a lot of time on some of the smaller ones. But Martin, I don't know if there are a few things you could share, particularly about maybe some of the newer ones Cote and Marrosa? Speaker 300:21:47Yes. Thanks for the question, Tanya. So looking forward towards the end of this year, I think we are expecting things to strengthen as we go towards the end of 2024 and 2025 and we are expecting PV to ramp up. We're expecting Penasquito to have improved gold production. We're expecting Goldrush to ramp up. Speaker 300:22:09So those are key in our forward looking side. But we do have some of our smaller operations that are also coming online. So Manchow, Kinross reported yesterday that, that project is going well. They have started the ore haulage over to the Fort Knox site. So we're looking to that to start up early in Q3 and to start receiving revenue there over the next few years. Speaker 300:22:40The Cote ramp up has started. They bought 1st gold on March 31. So that is moving ahead. They're looking to get to commercial production in Q3. And Maro Rossa, they produced their first gold on February 21st and they're looking to ramp up to commercial production over the next few weeks. Speaker 300:23:02So they're looking in the longer term or in the short term in 2024, 83,000 to 93,000 ounces and then ramping up to 100,000 ounces over the first 4 years of operation. So those ones are going well. The other ones that I would mention are probably Bellevue. Very good exploration results out of Bellevue and good definition drilling results over the past quarter. So we're expecting good things there over the next few years. Speaker 300:23:33So that's those are the ones that jumped to mind, Tanya. Speaker 600:23:38Yes. It's just these ones are the operators are well covered. I was kind of thinking more of some of the smaller ones, but we could take it offline and see. I knew a couple of years ago, you had talked about some of these smaller ones contributing anywhere between 10,025,000 GEOs or thereabout. Obviously, some of them are in here. Speaker 600:24:01I was just kind of wondering if there was some smaller ones beyond the ones you just mentioned now that we should be thinking about that would contribute above and beyond these ones? Okay. Yes. We can take Speaker 200:24:16it offline. And if there are any specific assets you're looking at, we'd be happy to respond. Speaker 700:24:22Just want to hit the ones you're interested in. Yes, specific ones. Speaker 600:24:28Yes. Just because those ones we cover already from the operator, so we kind of well know those ones and those are already in our models. I'm just wondering maybe there are some smaller ones that we can get to, but we'll take it offline. My second question is just on the transaction environment, if I could. Every call I ask every company, what they're seeing out there. Speaker 600:24:53I asked again, I know in the Investor Day, but wanted to circle back because it's very dynamic. So wanted to hear from you again today, what are you seeing size wise for deals? Hopefully by now Newmont have put and open the data room for these Newcrest and other assets for sale. So just wanted to see size wise, understand whether it's still mine bills, financing, balance sheet repairs. And then I want to understand the structure of the deals, whether you're focused mainly on just royalty streams or would you also look at equity and or debt components? Speaker 600:25:37So that would be helpful. Thank you. Speaker 200:25:40Sure. Lots to unpack there. I the one comment I'm going to turn this over to Dan. The one comment I would say is we're not going to comment on anything specific that we might be looking at, but Dan can certainly give you a feel for what we're seeing. Speaker 700:25:56Sure, Bill. Hi, good morning, Tanya. Thanks for the question. And I think you've heard this from some of our peers probably already with their comments. The pipeline is pretty robust at the moment. Speaker 700:26:10I think that's the best way to describe We're quite busy right now with reviews on a number of opportunities. And I think the higher commodity prices are really starting to settle in, Tanya, and I think that's moving projects forward. And I think we're seeing the equity markets really opening up and that source of capital is coming into the sector and that's helping projects move forward as well. And I think as we look at the debt markets and thinking out and looking at where interest rates are and where they might remain elevated for a while, I think that's also going to keep counterparties interested with looking at other sources of capital like royalties and streams. So I always tell you that the size range, Tonya, is the $100,000,000 to $300,000,000 level. Speaker 700:26:58I think that's broadly fair still here. We are aware of a few larger opportunities in the market. And I think it's fair to say that those opportunities are generally related to improving balance sheets and liquidity and so forth, mainly over base metal assets. So we would be looking at byproduct, precious metals in those cases. But I'd also just mention, you heard from Paul in his comments on our liquidity, and we have lots of internal liquidity with almost $1,000,000,000 to look at those kinds of transactions as well. Speaker 700:27:34So we feel pretty good about the market. On the smaller end, it's still very busy for us. I mentioned the equity opening up a little bit, but there are some interesting sub-one $100,000,000 type opportunities, earlier stage projects and whatnot that we're looking at as well. So hopefully, that gives you a little bit of flavor from our side with what we're seeing. Speaker 200:27:58Yes, let me just complete the last part of your question, which was doing equity and debt. And I think we've been pretty consistent. We're relatively open to it. It's not our core business. We wouldn't earn our valuation premium on a debt investment Speaker 500:28:16or an equity investment. At the same time, if Speaker 200:28:16the price is the an overall financing package where we can provide all of those things. But we're certainly open to it. You've seen us do debt at Comeco and Wassa. So certainly wouldn't close the door on it and say we're not going to play in those markets, but the stream's got to be the prize. Speaker 600:28:46Okay. Okay. Thank you so much for taking my questions. I will let somebody else ask. Thank you so much. Speaker 200:28:53Thanks, Tanya. Operator00:28:56Thank you. Our next question comes from Brian MacArthur from Raymond James. Please go ahead. Speaker 800:29:12Good morning and thank you for taking my questions. Just back to Cosmos' question about the tax. So if I understand this right, you paid $13,000,000 in tax on the $25,000,000 cash payment from Centerra. Is that all cash? And secondly, like why is the tax rate so high on that? Speaker 200:29:34Paul, I'm going to hand Speaker 500:29:35that right back to you. Speaker 400:29:36Yes. No, and it's a fair question. And again, this really goes back to that, the accounting and the tax on this transaction, it was unique. And it was unique in the sense that the treatments differed. So for U. Speaker 400:29:54S. Income tax purposes, the U. S. Income inclusion rules, the value of the consideration that we've received when we entered in the transaction, that was immediately taxable. And again, the consideration that we received was the $24,500,000 the value of the 50,000 deferred gold ounces as well as the free cash flow interest. Speaker 400:30:15So when we took that entire value, which the majority of that was the value of the deferred gold, which I think was roughly $2,000 an ounce when we entered in the transaction, it's about $100,000,000 So that's $125,000,000 So then you apply the GILTI rate to that, which is at 13% and that gets you roughly to that $13,000,000 that we paid in taxes there in Q1. Speaker 800:30:40And that was all cash? Speaker 400:30:43Correct. Speaker 800:30:44Not deferred or anything. So you don't okay. Speaker 400:30:47Correct. Yes. And then as I mentioned to Cosmos, going into the future, again, that value of that deferred gold, it could go up. And if that happens, then at a future date when we receive the delivery of those gold ounces, we could pay that same cash tax, the GILTI rate 13% in the future. But on the flip side, again, too, if we if that value should go down, then we could see a cash tax benefit come through. Speaker 800:31:16Okay. But we're talking all cash to this, not just book accounting? Speaker 300:31:21Correct. Speaker 800:31:22Okay. My second question and maybe this is better offline. It talks about you got to the cash consideration of and then cash flow interest received of 25,000,000 dollars Why is it $500,000 for that free cash flow interest? I assume that's calculated on an NPV basis post 2,030 or something. But on the offset of that, you might have to make cost component support payments. Speaker 800:31:54So like if it's too complicated, we'd take it offline. But like I just not quite sure I understand where those values came from. And the reason I asked is I'm still trying to figure out the value of the deal, right? Because there's if it's cash tax payments, it changes what the value of the deal is. Speaker 200:32:12Yes, Brian, let me just focus on the free cash flow royalty a little bit. Okay, that was, as I called it, when I asked for it, it's idiot insurance, right? The metal prices go up so high, they didn't actually need our cost support. The mine would have been fine and we didn't need to change anything. And so all we wanted was something that says, if the metal prices go up really, really high and this thing is making cash flow is cash flowing, I want to share in it, even to a small amount. Speaker 200:32:41And it's carried. We don't have to contribute to costs. It's not a joint venture interest or anything like that. And I will say that when we were doing our calculation at the time and at the prices, the long term prices we were using, there just wasn't a lot of free cash flow that we thought might be there. And so we really heavily discounted it and we just came up with a value of $500,000 Now today's price is probably worth more. Speaker 200:33:06But that it's pretty far in the future because you get to 2,030, they've got to be thinking about expanding the tailings storage facility. There are going to be costs that will be incurred that would get deducted from any free cash flow interest. So it was just it was something I wanted just so we didn't look kind of dumb for giving up something today if we didn't need to 5 or 6 years from now. Speaker 800:33:32No, it makes sense to me. In fact, I was trying to think about it the other way because if you extend the mine through the 20, 40 or 50 or 60, then doesn't that thing become quite valuable? Speaker 200:33:43It could be, but all we've got right now is a 2 year extension of reserves and they're working on a PEA. So that might be a conversation to have when the PEA comes out. Right. Okay. Speaker 800:33:53So that was kind of calculated 2,035, I get that. Speaker 200:33:56Okay. That helps a lot. Speaker 800:33:57Thanks very much, Bill. That makes that clears it up. Thank Speaker 100:34:00you. Thanks, Brian. Operator00:34:04Thank you. We currently have no further questions. So I'd like to hand back to Bill Huysenbuttel to conclude. Speaker 200:34:25Well, thanks everyone for taking the time to join us today. We certainly appreciate your interest in Royal Gold and we look forward to updating you on our progress during the next quarterly call. Take care. Operator00:34:38This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your line.Read morePowered by