Royal Gold Files S-4 Registration Statement to Advance Merger with Battle Mountain Gold Exploration


DENVER, Aug. 9 -- ROYAL GOLD, INC. (Nasdaq: RGLD; TSX: RGL) ("Royal Gold"), the world's leading precious metals royalty company, today announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-4 with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the merger transaction with Battle Mountain Gold Exploration Corp. ("Battle Mountain"). As announced in the Company's July 31, 2007 press release, Royal Gold has agreed to acquire 100% of the fully diluted shares of Battle Mountain. Battle Mountain shareholders may elect to receive either cash consideration of $0.55 per Battle Mountain share or from 0.0172 to 0.0179 shares of Royal Gold common stock per Battle Mountain share, in each case assuming there are 91,563,506 Battle Mountain shares outstanding at closing.

The consideration payable to Battle Mountain's shareholders is subject to a potential reduction or holdback for certain contingent liabilities. Completion of the merger, which was unanimously approved by both companies' Boards of Directors, is subject to various closing conditions including Battle Mountain shareholder approval.

Battle Mountain is a precious metals royalty company with a portfolio consisting of royalties on 13 properties located mainly in the Americas. Its principal assets include a 3.25% net smelter return ("NSR") royalty on gold production and a 2.0% NSR royalty on silver production from the Dolores project in Mexico, which is under development by Minefinders Corporation Ltd. Minefinders expects commercial production to begin in the early part of calendar 2008. Battle Mountain has disclosed that their royalty properties contain approximately 4.8 million ounces of gold reserves and 136 million ounces of silver reserves.

Royal Gold is a precious metals royalty company engaging in the acquisition and management of precious metal royalty interests. Royal Gold is publicly-traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "RGLD," and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "RGL." The Company's web page is located at http://www.royalgold.com/.

FCMN Contact: kgross@royalgold.com

Source: Royal Gold, Inc.

CONTACT: Karen Gross, Vice President and Corporate Secretary of Royal Gold, Inc., +1-303-573-1660

Web site: http://www.royalgold.com/

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