Royal Gold Reports a 26% Revenue Increase in Its Third Fiscal Quarter

Royal Gold Inc. (NASDAQ: RGLD; TSX: RGL) (together with its subsidiaries, “Royal Gold” or the “Company”) reports results for its third quarter of fiscal 2016 (“third quarter”), including total revenue of $93.5 million, up 26% from $74.1 million in the prior year quarter. The increase in revenue was driven by an increase in stream revenue from newly acquired streams at Pueblo Viejo, Wassa and Prestea, and Andacollo.

Third Quarter Highlights Compared with the Year-ago Quarter:

• Revenue of $93.5 million, an increase of 26%
• Volume of 79,025 Gold Equivalent Ounces (“GEOs”¹), an increase of 30%
• Record quarterly dividends paid of $15 million, or $0.23 per share
• After previously announced impairment charges, net loss was ($1.04) per share and adjusted net income² was $0.29 per share, excluding the impairment
• Adjusted EBITDA³ of $69.3 million, an increase of 20%

“Our new streams at Andacollo, Pueblo Viejo, Wassa and Prestea are delivering significant growth and contributed to a 27% increase in operating cash flow over the December quarter,” commented Tony Jensen, President and CEO. “As expected, we are now receiving deliveries of silver in addition to gold from Pueblo Viejo, further enhancing our returns from this quality property. Looking forward, we anticipate production from Rainy River and Cortez Crossroads will provide additional growth and portfolio diversification in the near future.”

Third quarter revenue included $63.4 million from the stream segment and $30.1 million from the royalty segment, at an average gold price of $1,183 per ounce. Stream segment gold purchases totaled approximately 40,800 ounces of gold and sales were approximately 54,300 ounces of gold. The Company had approximately 12,200 ounces of gold and 210,000 ounces of silver in inventory at March 31, 2016, as previously announced, compared to 25,700 ounces of gold at December 31, 2015.

Cost of sales was $17.9 million for the third quarter, compared to $10.5 million a year ago. The increase is primarily attributable to stream production at Pueblo Viejo, Wassa and Prestea, and Andacollo. Cost of sales is specific to our stream agreements and is the result of the Company’s purchase of gold and silver for a cash payment.

General and administrative expenses increased to $7.7 million for the third quarter, up from $5.5 million a year ago. The increase was primarily due to an increase in non-cash stock based compensation of approximately $1.5 million.

Depreciation, depletion and amortization increased to $38.2 million for the third quarter, up from $24.8 million a year ago. The increase was primarily attributable to new production from the recently acquired streams at Pueblo Viejo, Andacollo, Wassa and Prestea.

Interest and other income increased to $3.1 million for the third quarter, up from $0.4 million a year ago, due to a change in fair value and gains on the sale of certain equity positions we held.

Interest and other expense increased to $8.8 million for the third quarter, up from $6.4 million a year ago, primarily due to the outstanding balance on our revolving credit facility. The Company had $300 million outstanding under the revolving credit facility at the end of the third quarter, and did not have any amounts outstanding under the revolving credit facility a year ago.

We recognized an income tax benefit totaling $8.3 million compared with income tax expense of $1.0 million in the year ago quarter. This resulted in an effective tax rate of 10.6% in the current period, compared with 4.0% in the year ago quarter. The effective tax rate was impacted by the impairment charge in the quarter and appreciation of the Canadian dollar.

Royal Gold reported a net loss attributable to Royal Gold stockholders of ($67.7) million, or ($1.04) per share for the third quarter, as compared to net income attributable to Royal Gold stockholders of $25.0 million, or $0.38 per share, for the prior year quarter. The decrease in reported net income was primarily attributable to previously disclosed impairments of royalty and stream interests and royalty receivables collectively totaling $99.0 million, the effect of which was $1.33 per share, after taxes in the third quarter. Excluding the after-tax effect of the impairments of royalty and stream interests and royalty receivables, adjusted net income attributable to Royal Gold stockholders would have been $18.9 million, or $0.29 per share for the third quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $69.3 million ($1.06 per basic share), representing 74% of revenue, compared with Adjusted EBITDA of $57.7 million ($0.89 per basic share), or 78% of revenue, for the year-ago quarter.

On March 16, 2016, the Company entered into an amendment to revise its revolving credit agreement to extend the scheduled maturity date from January 29, 2019 to March 16, 2021. At March 31, 2016, working capital totaled $151.0 million. When combined with $350 million of available liquidity under our revolving credit facility, total liquidity at March 31, 2016 was approximately $500.0 million. Cash flow from operations was $66.1 million for the third quarter.

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PROPERTY HIGHLIGHTS

A summary of calendar year production estimates versus actual production at certain producing properties can be found on Table 3. Highlights at certain of the Company’s principal producing and development properties during the third quarter, compared with the quarter ended March 31, 2015, are detailed in our Form 10-Q.

CORPORATE PROFILE

Royal Gold is a precious metals royalty and stream company engaged in the acquisition and management of precious metal royalties, streams, and similar production based interests. The Company owns interests on 193 properties on six continents, including interests on 38 producing mines and 24 development stage projects. Royal Gold is publicly traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “RGLD,” and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “RGL.” The Company’s website is located at www.royalgold.com.

Note: Management’s conference call reviewing the third fiscal quarter results will be held Thursday, April 28, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time (noon Eastern Daylight Time) and will be available by calling (855) 209-8260 (U.S.), (855) 669-9657 (Canada) or (412) 542-4106 (international), conference title “Royal Gold.” The call will be simultaneously broadcast on the Company’s website at www.royalgold.com under the “Presentations” section. A replay of this webcast will be available on the Company’s website approximately two hours after the call ends.

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 operators’ expectations about development, ramp-up, production and mine life; anticipated production and returns from our stream and royalty properties, including without limitation Rainy River and Cortez Crossroads and statements about the opportunities for portfolio and investment diversification and the Company’s ability to pursue such opportunities. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the projections include, among others, precious metals, copper and nickel prices; performance of and production at the Company's royalty and stream properties; the ability of operators of development properties to finance project construction to completion and bring projects into production as expected; operators’ delays in securing or inability to secure necessary governmental permits; decisions and activities of the operators of the Company's royalty and stream properties; unanticipated grade, environmental, geological, seismic, metallurgical, processing, liquidity or other problems the operators of the mining properties may encounter; completion of feasibility studies; changes in operators’ project parameters as plans continue to be refined; changes in estimates of reserves and mineralization by the operators of the Company’s royalty and stream properties; contests to the Company’s royalty and stream interests and title and other defects to the Company’s royalty and stream properties; errors or disputes in calculating royalty and stream payments, or payments not made in accordance with royalty and stream agreements; economic and market conditions; risks associated with conducting business in foreign countries; changes in laws governing the Company and its royalty and stream properties or the operators of such properties; and other subsequent events; as well as 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.

SCHEDULE A

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Non-GAAP financial measures are intended to provide additional information only and do not have any standard meaning prescribed by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). These measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance prepared in accordance with GAAP.

Our management uses Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted Net Income as measures of operating performance to assist in comparing performance from period to period on a consistent basis; as a measure for planning and forecasting overall expectations and for evaluating actual results against such expectations; in communications with the board of directors, stockholders, analysts and investors concerning our financial performance; as useful comparisons to the performance of our competitors; and as metrics of certain management incentive compensation calculations. We believe that these measures are used by and are useful to investors and other users of our financial statements in evaluating our operating performance because they provide an additional tool to evaluate our performance without regard to special and noncore items, which can vary substantially from company to company depending upon accounting methods and book value of assets and capital structure. We have provided reconciliations of all non-GAAP measures to their nearest U.S. GAAP measures and have consistently applied the adjustments within our reconciliations in arriving at each non-GAAP measure. We consider these items to be necessary adjustments for purposes of evaluating our ongoing business performance and are often considered non-recurring. Such adjustments are subjective and involve significant management judgment.

Adjusted EBITDA is defined by the Company as net (loss) income plus depreciation, depletion and amortization, non-cash charges, income tax expense, interest and other expense, and any impairment of mining assets, less non-controlling interests in operating income of consolidated subsidiaries, interest and other income, and any royalty portfolio restructuring gains or losses. Other companies may define and calculate this measure differently. Adjusted EBITDA identifies the cash generated in a given period that will be available to fund the Company's future operations, growth opportunities, shareholder dividends and to service the Company's debt obligations. This information differs from measures of performance determined in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for measures of performance determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP. On the next page is a reconciliation of net income to Adjusted EBITDA.

Adjusted Net Income

Management of the Company uses adjusted net income (loss) to evaluate the Company’s operating performance, and for planning and forecasting future business operations. The Company believes the use of adjusted net income (loss) allows investors and analysts to understand the results relating to receipt of revenue from its royalty interests and purchase and sale of gold from its streaming interests by excluding certain items that have a disproportionate impact on our results for a particular period. The net income (loss) adjustments are presented net of tax generally at Company’s statutory effective tax rate. Management’s determination of the components of adjusted net income (loss) are evaluated periodically and based, in part, on a review of non-GAAP financial measures used by mining industry analysts. Net income (loss) attributable to Royal Gold stockholders is reconciled to adjusted net income (loss) as follows:

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Royal Gold, Inc.
Karli Anderson, 303-575-6517
Vice President Investor Relations