OPERATIONS, SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND RECENTLY ISSUED AND RECENTLY ADOPTED ACCOUNTING STANDARDS	6 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2017
OPERATIONS, SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND RECENTLY ISSUED AND RECENTLY ADOPTED ACCOUNTING STANDARDS
OPERATIONS, SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND RECENTLY ISSUED AND RECENTLY ADOPTED ACCOUNTING STANDARDS	1. OPERATIONS, SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND RECENTLY ISSUED AND RECENTLY ADOPTED ACCOUNTING STANDARDS 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 streams, royalties and similar interests. We seek to acquire existing stream and royalty interests or to finance projects that are in production or in the development stage in exchange for stream or royalty interests. 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. 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. 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 six months ended December 31, 2017, are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018. 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, 2017 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 10, 2017 (“Fiscal 2017 10-K”). Certain amounts in the prior period financial statements have been reclassified for comparative purposes to conform with the presentation in the current period financial statements. Reclassified amounts were not material to the financial statements. Recently Issued and Adopted Accounting Standards Recently Issued In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) guidance for the recognition of revenue from contracts with customers. This ASU superseded virtually all of the existing revenue recognition guidance under U.S. GAAP. The core principle of the five step model is that an entity will recognize revenue when it transfers control of goods or services to customers at an amount that reflects the consideration to which it expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. Entities can choose to apply the standard using either the full retrospective approach or a modified retrospective approach. The standard is effective for the Company’s fiscal year beginning July 1, 2018. Early adoption is permitted. We plan to implement the new ASU revenue recognition guidance as of July 1, 2018, using the modified retrospective method with the cumulative effect, if any, of initial adoption to be recognized in Accumulated earnings at the date of initial application. We are in the initial stages of our evaluation of the impact of the new standard on our accounting policies, processes, and financial reporting. Based on the evaluation performed to-date, we expect to identify similar performance obligations as compared with deliverables and separate units of account previously identified. We will continue to assess the impact of adopting this ASU throughout the remainder of fiscal year 2018. Recently Adopted In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU guidance related to stock-based compensation. The new guidance simplifies the accounting for stock-based compensation transactions, including income tax consequences, statement of cash flows presentation, estimating forfeitures when calculating compensation expense, and classification of awards as either equity or liabilities. The new standard requires all excess tax benefits and tax deficiencies to be recognized as income tax benefit (expense) in the income statement. The new guidance also requires presentation of excess tax benefits as an operating activity on the statement of cash flows rather than a financing activity and requires presentation of cash paid to a tax authority when shares are withheld to satisfy the employer’s statutory income tax withholding obligation as a financing activity. The new guidance also provides for an election to account for forfeitures of stock-based compensation. The Company adopted the ASU guidance effective July 1, 2017. With respect to the forfeiture election, the Company will continue its current practice of estimating forfeitures when calculating compensation expense. The adoption of this standard did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements or related disclosures.

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

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 streams, royalties and similar interests. We seek to acquire existing stream and royalty interests or to finance projects that are in production or in the development stage in exchange for stream or royalty interests. 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. 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.

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 six months ended December 31, 2017, are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018. 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, 2017 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 10, 2017 (“Fiscal 2017 10-K”).

Certain amounts in the prior period financial statements have been reclassified for comparative purposes to conform with the presentation in the current period financial statements. Reclassified amounts were not material to the financial statements.

Recently Issued and Adopted Accounting Standards

Recently Issued

In May 2014, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) guidance for the recognition of revenue from contracts with customers. This ASU superseded virtually all of the existing revenue recognition guidance under U.S. GAAP. The core principle of the five step model is that an entity will recognize revenue when it transfers control of goods or services to customers at an amount that reflects the consideration to which it expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. Entities can choose to apply the standard using either the full retrospective approach or a modified retrospective approach. The standard is effective for the Company’s fiscal year beginning July 1, 2018. Early adoption is permitted.

We plan to implement the new ASU revenue recognition guidance as of July 1, 2018, using the modified retrospective method with the cumulative effect, if any, of initial adoption to be recognized in Accumulated earnings at the date of initial application. We are in the initial stages of our evaluation of the impact of the new standard on our accounting policies, processes, and financial reporting. Based on the evaluation performed to-date, we expect to identify similar performance obligations as compared with deliverables and separate units of account previously identified. We will continue to assess the impact of adopting this ASU throughout the remainder of fiscal year 2018.

Recently Adopted

In March 2016, the FASB issued ASU guidance related to stock-based compensation. The new guidance simplifies the accounting for stock-based compensation transactions, including income tax consequences, statement of cash flows presentation, estimating forfeitures when calculating compensation expense, and classification of awards as either equity or liabilities.

The new standard requires all excess tax benefits and tax deficiencies to be recognized as income tax benefit (expense) in the income statement. The new guidance also requires presentation of excess tax benefits as an operating activity on the statement of cash flows rather than a financing activity and requires presentation of cash paid to a tax authority when shares are withheld to satisfy the employer’s statutory income tax withholding obligation as a financing activity. The new guidance also provides for an election to account for forfeitures of stock-based compensation.

The Company adopted the ASU guidance effective July 1, 2017. With respect to the forfeiture election, the Company will continue its current practice of estimating forfeitures when calculating compensation expense. The adoption of this standard did not have a material impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements or related disclosures.