On July 9, 2015, Teck Resources Ltd. (Teck) announced that Compañia Minera Teck Carmen de Andacollo (CDA) entered into a long-term gold offtake agreement with RGLD Gold AG (RGLDAG), a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Gold, Inc., in respect of production from the Andacollo copper mine in central Chile.
Under the terms of the offtake agreement, RGLDAG made an advance payment of US$525 million to CDA, which has agreed to sell and deliver, on a monthly basis, an amount of gold equal to 100 per cent of the payable gold produced from the Carmen de Andacollo mine until 900,000 ounces have been delivered, and 50 per cent thereafter. RGLDAG will also pay a per ounce cash price of 15 per cent of the monthly average gold price at the time of each delivery.
CDA also agreed to terminate an earlier royalty agreement with Royal Gold Chile Limitada (RG Chile) from 2010 on gold production from the Andacollo mine.
Pursuant to that termination agreement, CDA paid RG Chile a US$345 million fee in order to terminate the royalty agreement, under which RG Chile was entitled to royalty payments based on 75 per cent of payable gold produced by CDA up to 910,000 ounces and 50 per cent thereafter.
Teck was represented in-house by Nick Uzelac. Borden Ladner Gervais LLP acted as Canadian counsel to Teck with a team led by Fred Pletcher that included Michael Waters and Michelle Wilkinson. Carey acted as Chilean counsel to Teck with a team that included partners Rafael Vergara and Alex Fischer, director Francisco Corona, and associates Isabel Espinoza, José Tomás Barrueto, Paula Gajardo, Ignacio Tornero, Borja Coz and Elías Mohor in Santiago.
RG Chile and RGLDAG were represented in-house, respectively, by Bruce Kirchhoff and Randy Shefman. Urenda, Rencoret, Orrego y Dörr Abogados acted as Chilean counsel to RG Chile and RGLDAG with a team that included partners Sergio Orrego, Gonzalo Rencoret and Ignacio Urrutia and associates Verónica Roa, Javiera Vicuña, Raúl Gómez, Sebastián García, Peter Faille and Santiago Verdugo in Santiago. Hogan Lovells LLP acted as US counsel to RG Chile and RGLDAG with a team that included partner Paul Hilton, counsel Kevin Burke and associate Andrew McCormick in Denver. McCarthy Tétrault LLP acted as Canadian counsel to RG Chile and RGLDAG with a team that included partner Brian Graves and associates Jennifer Organ, Lama Sabbagh and Claire Gowdy in Toronto. Schellenberg Wittmer Ltd. acted as Swiss counsel to RGLDAG with a team that included partner Martin Weber in Zurich.