Preliminary Economic Assessment For The Peak Gold Project

DENVER, CO - Royal Gold Inc. reported that the Peak Gold, LLC joint venture, of which our Royal Alaska, LLC subsidiary owns a 40% interest, has completed a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on the Peak Gold Project located near Tok, Alaska. The PEA presents a robust open pit mining operation with attractive economics at base case gold and silver prices. All results presented herein are on a 100% Peak Gold basis.

Highlights of the PEA results, assuming base case metal price parameters of US$ 1,250 per ounce of gold and US$ 17.00 per ounce of silver, include: Pre-tax NPV5% of US$ 393 million and IRR of 37.0%; After-tax NPV5% of US$ 283 million and IRR of 29.1%; Mine life of 8 years with a 24-month pre-production period; 9.3 million tonnes processed at an average grade of 3.99 g/t gold and 11.7 g/t silver; Average metallurgical recoveries of 91.6% for gold and 57.0% for silver; Life of mine recovered gold of 1.093 million ounces and 1.996 million ounces of silver; Life of mine strip ratio of 3.9 tonnes of waste to tonnes of material processed; Life of mine total cash cost of US$ 428 per ounce of gold recovered, and US$ 470 per ounce of gold recovered including sustaining capital; Life of mine capital cost of US$ 340 million, consisting of US$ 294 million of initial development capital, and sustaining capital and closure costs of US$ 46 million; and After-tax payback period for initial development capital of approximately 2 years.

“The results of the PEA are a significant milestone and show that the Peak Gold Project is one of the most interesting emerging gold projects in the United States,” commented Tony Jensen, President and CEO of Royal Gold. “The combination of robust grade, near-surface open-pit resource, and a large and prospective land package located close to existing infrastructure, makes the Peak Gold Project unique. Royal Gold is committed to this exciting Project over the long term and will focus on opportunities to realize the value of our interest in a manner more closely aligned with our core business model.”

The PEA considers a conventional truck and shovel open-pit mining operation covering the North, Main and West Peak deposits, feeding a 3,500 tonne per day processing plant with two-stage crushing, grinding and a carbon in leach (CIL) recovery circuit, with production of gold-silver dore bullion on site. The PEA is based on an update of the mineral resource estimate for the Peak and North Peak deposits previously announced.

The company’s address is 1660 Wynkoop, Suite 1000, Denver, CO 80202, (303) 573-1660, fax: (303) 595-9385, email: [email protected].