Empress Royalty welcomes Rick Rule as strategic investor
Empress Royalty Corp [EMPR-TSXV, EMPYF-OTCQB] shares rallied in active trading Wednesday after the company welcomed Rick Rule as a long-term strategic investor and said it has raised $2.6 million (US$2 million) after closing the second tranche of a non-brokered private placement financing.
Rule is president and CEO of Rule Investment Media and a high-profile natural resource investor specializing in mining, energy, water utilities, forest products and agriculture.
“The funds raised will be deployed to aggressively evaluate new potential opportunities to expand our diversified portfolio of revenue-generating gold and silver investments,’’ said Empress Royalty President and CEO Alexandra Woodyer Sherron.
“We are focused on executing our strategy of becoming a leading financier to the junior mining industry and creating significant value for our shareholders,’’ Woodyer Sherron said. “The private placement is a fundamental step in the growth of Empress’ vision and business strategy, and we welcome Rick Rule as a long-term strategic investor.’’
The private placement consisted of 8.7 million units priced at 30 cents per unit. Each unit consists of one common share and one common share purchase warrant. Each warrant will entitle the holder to purchase one common share for 60 cents for five years from the date of closing.
The first tranche generated US$1 million and consisted of 4.35 million units at 30 cents per unit, placed with Rule.
In the event that the closing price (or closing bid price on days when there are no trades) of common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange exceeds $1.20 for a minimum of 20 consecutive trading days, the warrant holders may be urged to exercise the warrants within 30 days after receiving written notice, after which the warrants will expire.
Empress is a royalty and streaming creation company with interests in gold and silver assets. Since December, 2020, Empress has built a portfolio of 17 precious metal investments and is actively investing in mining companies with development and production stage projects who require additional non-dilutive capital.
Empress owns a 3.375% gold royalty on the Manica gold mine in Mozambique. The mine is operated by Mutapa Mining and Processing LDA
The portfolio includes a 4.5% stream on the Sierra Antapite gold mine in Peru where production is being expanded to 1,000 tonnes per day from 750 tonnes. It also holds a 100% stream on the Tahuehueto silver mine in Mexico, where full production is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2022.
Back in April, 2001, Empress executed a US$5 million silver stream agreement to purchase 100% of the payable silver production from Tahuehueto for the first 1.25 million payable silver ounces. Thereafter, the percentage falls to 20% of the payable silver production to a maximum of 10 years. Empress has pledged to purchase the silver at 20% of the spot price.
The rest of the assets in the portfolio are currently in the exploration stage.
The company has said its portfolio is expected to generate revenue of US$28 million over the next three