Royal Gold Increases Gold Stream Interest  

DENVER, CO - Royal Gold, Inc. has agreed to acquire, through its wholly-owned subsidiary RGLD Gold AG, an additional 15% of the payable gold produced from the Mt. Milligan copper-gold project, located in British Columbia, from a subsidiary of Thompson Creek Metals Company, Inc. Consideration for the new transaction is $270 million and cash payments equal to the lesser of $435 or the prevailing market price for each payable ounce of gold delivered to Royal Gold (the Delivery Payment ). This restructured Delivery Payment replaces and simplifies the payment structure in the original Mt. Milligan transaction announced in July 2010 ( Original Transaction ).

Combined with the Original Transaction, Royal Gold will be entitled to 40% of the payable gold produced from Mt. Milligan for total consideration of $581.5 million and the Delivery Payment. To date, Royal Gold has paid approximately $252.6 million to Thompson Creek and will pay $112 million following closing of the new transaction and the remaining $216.9 million in scheduled quarterly payments commencing on March 1, 2012. Royal Gold will use cash on hand to pay the $112 million and has borrowed $100 million under its credit facility.

Tony Jensen, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, We are pleased to increase our investment in this high-quality near-term project, located in the attractive host country of Canada, and to further our excellent working relationship with Thompson Creek. With an estimated mine life of 22 years, this opportunity is expected to provide Royal Gold with a substantial source of long-term gold revenue.

The Mt. Milligan project is in the middle stages of construction, and Thompson Creek estimates that production will commence in late calendar 2013. Thompson Creek has reported EPCM progress at 76% for project engineering, 64% for procurement, 26% for construction, and overall progress at 43%. Thompson Creek, per a National Instrument 43-101 technical report regarding the Mt. Milligan project filed on SEDAR on October 13, 2011, has reported that proven and probable reserves total 482 million tonnes (0.20% copper; 0.39 g/t gold), containing 2.1 billion pounds of copper and 6.0 million ounces of gold. Production is estimated in the technical report to be approximately 262,000 ounces of gold annually during the first six years of operation and 194,000 ounces of gold annually over the life of the mine.