XML 30 R6.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v2.4.1.9
OPERATIONS, SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND RECENTLY ISSUED ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS
9 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2015
OPERATIONS, SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND RECENTLY ISSUED ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS  
OPERATIONS, SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND RECENTLY ISSUED ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

 

1.OPERATIONS, SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND RECENTLY ISSUED ACCOUNTING PRONOUNCEMENTS

 

Royal Gold, Inc. (“Royal Gold”, the “Company”, “we”, “us”, or “our”), together with its subsidiaries, is engaged in the business of acquiring and managing precious metals royalties, metal streams, and similar interests.  Royalties are non-operating interests in mining projects that provide the right to revenue or metals produced from the project after deducting specified costs, if any.  A metal stream is a purchase agreement that provides, in exchange for an upfront deposit payment, the right to purchase all or a portion of one or more metals produced from a mine, at a price determined for the life of the transaction by the purchase agreement.

 

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

 

The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.  Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and footnotes required by U.S. GAAP for annual financial statements.  In the opinion of management, all adjustments which are of a normal recurring nature considered necessary for a fair presentation of our interim financial statements have been included in this Form 10-Q.  Operating results for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2015, are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015.  These interim unaudited financial statements should be read in conjunction with the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2014 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 7, 2014 (“Fiscal 2014 10-K”).

 

Asset Impairment

 

We evaluate long-lived assets for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the related carrying amounts of an asset or group of assets may not be recoverable.  The recoverability of the carrying value of royalty and stream interests in production and development stage mineral properties is evaluated based upon estimated future undiscounted net cash flows from each royalty and stream interest property using estimates of proven and probable reserves and other relevant information received from the operators.  We evaluate the recoverability of the carrying value of royalty interests in exploration stage mineral properties in the event of significant decreases in the price of gold, silver, copper, nickel and other metals, and whenever new information regarding the mineral properties is obtained from the operator indicating that production will not likely occur or may be reduced in the future, thus affecting the future recoverability of our royalty interests.  Impairments in the carrying value of each property are measured and recorded to the extent that the carrying value in each property exceeds its estimated fair value, which is generally calculated using estimated future discounted cash flows.

 

Our estimates of gold, silver, copper, nickel and other metal prices, operators’ estimates of proven and probable reserves related to our royalty or streaming properties, and operators’ estimates of operating, capital and reclamation costs are subject to certain risks and uncertainties which may affect the recoverability of our investment in these royalty and stream interests in mineral properties.  Although we have made our best assessment of these factors based on current market conditions, it is possible that changes could occur, which could adversely affect the net cash flows expected to be generated from these royalty and stream interests.  Refer to Note 3 for discussion and the results of our quarterly impairment assessments for the three and nine months ended March 31, 2015.

 

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements

 

In February 2015, the Financial Accounting Standards Board issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2015-02, Amendments to the Consolidation Analysis.  This ASU affects reporting entities that are required to evaluate whether they should consolidate certain legal entities.  This update makes some targeted changes to current consolidation guidance and impacts both the voting and the variable interest consolidation models.  In particular, the update will change how companies determine whether limited partnerships or similar entities are variable interest entities (“VIEs”).  The update is effective for us in the first quarter of our fiscal year 2016.  We are currently evaluating the impact of this new standard on our consolidated financial statements.