On July 25, 2018, Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (Wheaton), through its wholly-owned subsidiary Wheaton Precious Metals International Ltd. (Wheaton International), closed a gold and palladium streaming agreement with Sibanye Gold Limited (Sibanye). Under the streaming agreement, Wheaton International has paid US$500 million as an advance payment to Sibanye in exchange for an amount of gold equal to 100% of the gold production from Sibanye’s Stillwater mining complex in Montana over the operating life of the assets and an amount of palladium equal to: 4.5% of palladium production from the Stillwater assets until 375,000 ounces are delivered to Wheaton International; thereafter, 2.25% of palladium production until a further 175,000 ounces are delivered; and subsequently 1% of palladium production for the life of the Stillwater assets.
In addition, Wheaton International will make ongoing payments equal to a maximum of 18% of the spot gold price and spot palladium price until the balance of the upfront cash payment is reduced to zero. Thereafter, ongoing payments will be a maximum of 22% of the spot gold price and spot palladium prices.
The streaming agreement is effective July 1, 2018.
Wheaton was represented in-house with a team led by Curt Bernardi, Senior Vice President, Legal & Corporate Secretary and Tamara Howarth, Senior Legal Counsel. Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP acted as external counsel for Wheaton with a team that included Mark Bennett, Alex Iliopoulos and Alexander Pizale (securities and mining) and David Budd and Jennifer Wasylyk (financial services). Crowley Fleck PLLP acted as Montana counsel to Wheaton with a team that included Joshua Cook (mining), Alan Bryan (real estate/finance) and Nate Good (corporate). Werksmans Attorneys acted as South African counsel with a team that included Chris Stevens and Jared Nickig (mining).
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP acted as counsel to Sibanye with a team composed of Brian Graves, Laura Konkel and Janet Howard (mining), John Torrey, Stuart Brotman and Dave Ferris (banking) and Mitchell Thaw (tax). Linklaters LLP acted as United States counsel to Sibanye with a team that included Tom Shropshire and Jeffrey Cohen (corporate), Christopher Williams and Richard Lee (banking) and Jonathan Neuville and Andrew Morris (tax). Webber Wentzel LLP acted as South African counsel to Sibanye with a team composed of Sean Gilmour, Brian Dennehy and Shirleen Ritchie (tax).