First Quantum raises $1bn from Royal Gold in Kansanshi gold-streaming deal

First Quantum Minerals said on 5 August 2025 that its subsidiary had agreed a gold-streaming transaction with Royal Gold under which Royal Gold's RGLD Gold AG unit would pay $1.0bn upfront in exchange for a stream of gold production linked to output at the Kansanshi copper-gold mine in Zambia, which First Quantum operates and owns 80%. Under the agreement, Royal Gold will receive 75 ounces of gold for every million pounds of recovered copper produced until cumulative deliveries reach 425,000 ounces, tapering to 55 ounces and then 45 ounces per million pounds as delivery thresholds are passed, alongside ongoing per-ounce cash payments to First Quantum equal to 20% of the spot gold price, rising to as much as 35% if the company hits certain credit or leverage targets.

Non-dilutive funding for expansion

The transaction gives First Quantum a large, immediate cash injection without issuing new shares or new high-coupon debt, at a time when the company has been working through a broader balance-sheet repair programme following the 2023 loss of its Cobre Panama mine. Royal Gold expects to receive about 12,500 ounces of gold from the deal in 2025 itself, rising to an average of 35,000 to 40,000 ounces a year over the following decade as Kansanshi's S3 expansion, a $1.25bn project roughly doubling the mine's ore-milling capacity, ramps up production.

Part of a wider refinancing push

The Royal Gold stream followed First Quantum's earlier 2024 refinancing, in which it raised $714m through an upsized bond offering of notes due 2029 to redeem higher-coupon debt maturing in 2025 and 2026. Together, the moves reflect a company using multiple tools, streaming, bond markets and asset sales, to fund both debt reduction and growth at Kansanshi simultaneously, rather than choosing between the two.

Why it matters for Zambia

Kansanshi is one of Zambia's largest copper mines, and the S3 expansion is a significant contributor to the government's ambitions to lift national copper output well above 2024 levels over the rest of the decade. Streaming deals like this one, increasingly common across the sector as gold and copper prices have risen, give miners a way to fund large Zambian projects that does not add conventional debt to their balance sheets, a structure other Copperbelt operators are likely to watch closely.

Sources

• First Quantum Minerals: First Quantum Announces $1.0 Billion Gold Stream, 05 Aug 2025
• Mining.com: First Quantum scores $1B streaming deal with Royal Gold, 05 Aug 2025
• Fasken: First Quantum Minerals completes US$1.0 billion gold streaming transaction on its Kansanshi copper mine in Zambia, 01 Apr 2026