DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLD) (together with its subsidiaries,
“Royal Gold” or the “Company,” “we” or “our”) reports that Centerra Gold
(“Centerra”) today announced that, due to a lack of sufficient water
resources, mill processing operations at the Mount Milligan mine in
British Columbia, Canada have been temporarily suspended. Centerra
reports that there will be adequate fresh water available to restart
mill processing operations at partial capacity by the end of January
2018 and at full capacity after the spring melt, typically in April.
Calendar year-to-date Centerra reports that Mount Milligan has produced
approximately 225,000 ounces of payable gold and approximately 54
million pounds of payable copper, slightly below full year guidance.
Royal Gold has a streaming interest on 35% of the gold and 18.75% of the
copper from Mount Milligan. Due to the timing of shipments and
deliveries of gold and copper, the impact of this shutdown is likely to
be reflected in Royal Gold’s mid-calendar 2018 results.
Centerra reports that the water shortage at Mount Milligan has been
exacerbated by unanticipated extremely cold temperatures, which has
resulted in a greater than expected loss of water volumes in the
tailings storage facility due to ice formation. In the fourth quarter of
calendar 2017, Centerra noted that it sought to mitigate the water
shortfall by drilling additional water wells to draw water from nearby
aquifers located on the property. While such wells were partially
successful, Centerra reports that the additional water obtained was not
sufficient to offset the loss of water volumes noted above. In addition,
as a further, longer-term mitigation measure, Centerra is pursuing an
amendment to Mount Milligan’s Environmental Assessment (EA) to allow
pumping of water from a nearby lake (Phillips Lake) and is applying for
the additional related permits. Centerra expects that by the end of
January 2018 there will be adequate fresh water available to restart
mill processing operations utilizing just one of the mine’s two ball
mills (38,000 tonnes per day to minimize water requirements), returning
to full capacity of two ball mills following the spring melt.
However, as Centerra noted, the availability of water is subject to,
among other things, natural forces that can be unpredictable. During
this downtime, Centerra announced that mill maintenance crews will
continue to carry out outstanding preventative maintenance activities
and will look to bring forward other maintenance work that had been
planned for later in the year. Centerra reports that Mount Milligan
continues to operate according to its mine plan and will continue to
expose, mine and stockpile additional ores for future processing.
CORPORATE PROFILE
Royal Gold is a precious metals stream and royalty company engaged in
the acquisition and management of precious metal streams, royalties and
similar production based interests. The Company owns interests on 196
properties on six continents, including interests on 39 producing mines
and 23 development stage projects. Royal Gold is publicly traded on the
NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “RGLD.” The Company’s
website is located at www.royalgold.com.
Cautionary “Safe Harbor” Statement Under the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995: With the exception of historical
matters, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking
statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from projections or estimates contained
herein. Such forward-looking statements include statements about
Centerra’s statements regarding availability of water sources for Mount
Milligan operations, re-starting partial or full operations at Mount
Milligan, and future production at Mount Milligan, and our statements
about the impact of operational issues at Mount Milligan on Royal Gold’s
results and the likely timing of such impact, and other factors
described in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports
on Form 10-Q, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. Most of these factors are beyond the Company’s ability to
predict or control. The Company disclaims any obligation to update any
forward-looking statement made herein. Readers are cautioned not to put
undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
Statement Regarding Third-Party Information: Certain information
provided in this press release, including production estimates, has been
provided to us by the Centerra as the operator of the relevant property
or is publicly available information filed by this operator with
applicable securities regulatory bodies, including the Securities and
Exchange Commission. Royal Gold has not verified, and is not in a
position to verify, and expressly disclaims any responsibility for, the
accuracy, completeness or fairness of such third-party information and
refers the reader to the public reports filed by the operators for
information regarding those properties.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171227005483/en/
Source: Royal Gold