Appian divests royalty, credit positions in Harte Gold at premium

Appian Capital Advisory LLP announced Tuesday that it has successfully divested its 2% net smelter return royalty and a subordinated credit facility in Harte Gold to Silver Lake Resources.

In December, Canadian-based Harte Gold entered creditor protection after failing to generate sufficient cash to continue operations at its Sugar Zone gold mine in Ontario. The company subsequently landed in the hands of Silver Lake after the Australian miner came in with the winning bid.

At the time, Silver Lake had agreed with an affiliate of Appian to acquire a combined 2% net smelter royalty on the entire Sugar Zone property.

As consideration for the royalty, Silver Lake will make a share payment totalling $22 million, compared with Appian’s original acquisition cost of $9.5 million in December 2019.

Silver Lake will also purchase the credit facility for $33.4 million in cash, which represents a 15% premium to Appian’s principal investment of $28 million in July 2020.

This total includes the $28 million principal, a 115% early redemption charge of $4.2 million, $1.2 million in accrued interest and roughly $680,000 in technical consulting and legal fees.

“The success of the transaction is the result of Appian’s active engagement with Silver Lake following Harte Gold’s entry into creditor protection on December 7, 2021, following which Silver Lake was ultimately named as successful bidder for the company,” Appian said in a news release.