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Denver Company Invests In Brazilian Mines Attracting Automaker Interest

A Denver-based company is investing to make money from precious metals production at a pair of mines in Brazil positioned to extract gold and supply the electric vehicle and battery industries.

Royal Gold Inc. struck a deal to spend $250 million acquiring royalty rights giving the company years of revenue tied to the metal’s production coming from the two mines in the coastal states of Alagoas and Bahia, Brazil.

The deal, expected to close this summer, involves Royal Gold in helping finance the mines and a new group of industrial partners, said Bill Heissenbuttel, company president and CEO.

“This proposed acquisition meets our strategic criteria for investment,” continued Mr. Heissenbuttel, “as the royalties will provide predominantly precious metals revenue on producing mines that we believe have excellent long-term potential, are run by experienced local operating management complemented by seasoned corporate leadership and are located in a mining-friendly jurisdiction.”

Royal Gold acquires royalties from precious metals mines and makes its money from the portfolio of payment streams, but it doesn’t acquire physical assets or operate mines. Its royalties generated $603.2 million in revenue and $239 million in profits for Royal Gold last year.

The Santa Rita mine is one of the world’s largest open-pit nickel sulfide mines, which was brought out of bankruptcy in 2018. Serrote is a new open-pit copper and gold mine.

Both nickel and copper are in high demand globally due to the need for those materials in construction of renewable energy infrastructure and batteries.

Royal Gold’s acquisition of royalties from the Serrote and Santa Rita mines comes as the mines themselves are being sold by London-based Appian Capital Advisory LLP, an investment

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Electric Vehicle Maker Acquires Large Site In West Valley

fund, for just over $1 billion to a group named ACG Acquisition Company Ltd.

ACG has supply deals and connections to PowerCo, a batterymaking division of automaker Volkswagen; to commodities giant Glencore; and to automaker Stellantis N.V., the parent company of Fiat and Peugeot, the companies said.

Those partner companies have agreed to invest $100 million each toward developing the mines’ production, ACG said.

Arizona-based vehicle maker Nikola Corp. quietly purchased nearly 1,000 acres in the Phoenix metro at the end of September for $16.5 million, according to Maricopa County records.

Nikola acquired the 920-acre site through Phoenix Hydrogen Hub LLC from Hardison Farms on Sept. 30, real estate database Vizzda shows. George Quinif of Peak Group LLC represented Nikola in the sale.

“The Glencore, Volkswagen and Stellantis partnerships are particularly notable, underlining the growing need for EV commodities and the demand for robust, transparent and traceable supply chains from western automotive OEMs, industry and other stakeholders,” said Michael Scherb, founder and CEO of Appian, in a press release about the sale.

The massive site is located at 28702 W. Patterson Road in south Buckeye just west of State Route 85 near the Arizona Department of Corrections Lewis Prison, which is one of the largest prisons in the state and houses more than 4,400 inmates.

Royal Gold plans to use cash and its line of revolving credit to pay for its royalties acquisition, which is contingent on the ACG purchase of the mines closing expected by August, the company said.

The sale comes after Nikola made multiple announcements that it planned to break ground on a hydrogen production hub in Arizona. The company’s CEO said in August that Nikola would start construction on the new facility by the end of this year but did not disclose the location.

The Denver company expects about 60% of its royalty payments from the mines to be from gold output, 25% from platinum and palladium, 5% from nickel and the rest from other metals, Royal Gold said.

The deal in Brazil follows a pair of Royal Gold deals in the past

According to the Arizona Corporation Commission, Corey Hessen and Omar Khayum, senior vice president and vice president of Canada-based TC Energy, respectively, are the managers of Phoenix Hydrogen Hub LLC. Oil and gas giant TC Energy partnered with Nikola last year to develop large-scale hydrogen production hubs across the U.S. and Canada.

12 months in which it spent $729 million acquiring royalty rights to gold production from the massive Nevada Gold Mines operation, in Nevada. The mine complex is owned by a joint venture between Denver-based Newmont Corp. and Canadian gold giant Barrick.By Greg Avery – Denver Business Journal

Nikola hasn’t confirmed, though, whether it plans to build a hydrogen production hub in Buckeye. Nikola said it has no comment about the Buckeye land sale or its plans for the property. The city of Buckeye said nothing has progressed with the company beyond negotiations.

Space Force Splits 12 Launch Missions Between ColoradoBased Rocket Company And SpaceX

The automaker is currently producing battery electric vehicles and has produced several alpha prototypes of its fuel cell electric vehicles, which run on hydrogen. Nikola is planning to build out a hydrogen fueling network to support its vehicles. Its first three locations will be established in California.

Colorado rocket company United Launch Alliance won business launching six military spacecraft into orbit in coming years for the U.S. Space Force. It’s a contract award splitting a dozen missions with SpaceX.

The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command on assigned the half-dozen launches to be handled by Centennialbased ULA’s newest launch vehicle, the Vulcan rocket.

In addition to the fueling stations, the

The awards are part of the National Security Space Launch Phase 2 procurement program. The first phase of the program split launches 60% to ULA and 40% to Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets.

“We partner closely with our launch service providers and mission customers to deliver critical payloads to orbit precisely, on time and without failure,” said Col. Chad Melone, SSC’s chief of the Launch Procurement and Integration Division. “ULA and SpaceX continue to provide outstanding launch services with their reliable and innovative launch systems, and we are confidentin their ability to maintain the unprecedented 100% program success for the NSSL missions assigned for launch in [the 2025 federal fiscal year].”

No value was assigned to the awards issued. But, based on the average value of previous program task orders for Vulcan launches, the new missions represent several hundred million dollars of revenue if not more than $1 billion to ULA.

Four of the launches added to ULA’s future manifest are for Space Force satellites and spacecraft. Two are procured by the military branch for the National Reconnaissance Office, which buys satellites and launch capabilities for intelligence agencies.

The phase 2 award also involves three launches from ULA’s western launch site at Vandenberg Space Force Base, on California’s central coast. ULA has not completed updating its launchpad infrastructure at the West Coast complex for Vulcan rockets.

ULA has yet to fly its Vulcan rocket. Its debut flight is expected this