Green Star Royalties

In October 2021, Star Royalties created a separate corporate entity, Green Star Royalties, to accelerate the growth of its pure-green portfolio. Green Star Royalties allows our company to become carbon negative as carbon sequestration benefits from its existing and future carbon offset projects are expected to more than offset our direct and attributable CO2 emissions.

Highlights and Investment Rationale

  • Carbon Negative Royalties: Green Star Royalties’ portfolio is expected to begin generating carbon offset credits in 2023, ramping up to over 570,000 carbon offset credits per annum from 2025 onwards. By progressively expanding its net negative CO2 balance with further green investments, Star Royalties will offer our investors exposure to precious metals and carbon credits with an increasingly negative carbon footprint.
  • Exposure to carbon credit pricing: Our strategy is to provide shareholders with exposure to rising carbon credit pricing and to generate superior returns through the origination of carbon credit royalties and streams.
  • Originating carbon offset credits: Our focus will be on funding new carbon credit projects in biosequestration (regenerative agriculture and improved forest management), renewable energies (solar, wind), as well as other cleantech investments.
  • Capturing green value: The combination of rapid growth in global ESG fund assets (Bloomberg forecasts ~US$53 trillion in assets under management by 2025) and limited ESG investment opportunities to allocate these funds to has the potential to create strong valuation premiums for ESG-focused companies, such as Star Royalties and Green Star Royalties.
  • Essential relationships: Green Star Royalties inherits a working partnership with Anew Climate LLC (formerly Blue Source LLC), North America’s leading carbon offset developer and marketer, as well as existing relationships with numerous Canadian Indigenous communities and First Nations. In addition, in early 2022, Green Star Royalties announced a strategic investment by Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, a senior Canadian gold mining company and a globally-recognized leader in ESG practices (see more below).
  • First-mover and strong pipeline: Star Royalties pioneered both the first forest carbon credit royalty investment as well as the first regenerative agriculture carbon credit royalty investment, and is pursuing a pipeline of additional cash flowing and near-cash flowing carbon credit opportunities in both the voluntary and compliance carbon markets with a priority on North American investments.
  • Respected team: Star Royalties will leverage the expertise of our existing management team to incubate Green Star Royalties with additional guidance from a diverse panel of green experts on its Technical Committee. The Technical Committee will review new investment opportunities and will have equal representation from Star Royalties and Agnico Eagle.
  • Strong governance and superior alignment: Green Star Royalties will be managed with top-quartile corporate governance principles under a diverse board, with two appointees each from Star Royalties and Agnico Eagle. Its core operating philosophy is to structure innovative transactions that are well aligned with the interests of all stakeholders.
  • Carbon Negative Gold: Green Star Royalties’ portfolio is expected to begin generating carbon offset credits in 2023, ramping up to over 570,000 carbon offset credits per annum from 2025 onwards. By progressively expanding its net negative CO2 balance with further green investments, Star Royalties will offer investors exposure to precious metals and carbon offset credits with an increasingly negative carbon footprint.
  • Exposure to carbon credit pricing: Our strategy is to provide shareholders with exposure to rising carbon credit pricing and to generate superior returns through the origination of green royalties and streams.
  • Originating carbon offsets: Our focus will be on funding new carbon credit projects in biosequestration (improved forest management and regenerative agriculture), renewable energies (solar, wind), as well as other cleantech investments.
  • Capturing green value: The combination of rapid growth in global ESG fund assets (Bloomberg forecasts ~US$53 trillion in assets under management by 2025) and limited ESG investment opportunities to allocate these funds to has the potential to create strong valuation premiums for ESG-focused companies, such as Star Royalties and Green Star Royalties.
  • Essential relationships: Green Star Royalties inherits a working partnership with Anew Climate LLC,(formerly Bluesource), North America’s leading carbon offset developer and marketer and existing relationships with numerous Canadian Indigenous communities and First Nations. In addition, in early 2022, Green Star Royalties announced a strategic investment by Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, a senior Canadian gold mining company and a globally recognized leader in environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices (see more below).
  • First-mover and strong pipeline: Star Royalties pioneered the first forest carbon credit royalty investment and is pursuing a pipeline of additional cash flowing and near-cash flowing green opportunities in both the compliance and voluntary carbon markets with a priority on North American investments.
  • Respected team: Star Royalties will leverage the expertise of its existing management to incubate Green Star Royalties with additional guidance from a diverse panel of green experts on its Technical Committee. The Technical Committee will review new investment opportunities and will have equal representation from Star Royalties and Agnico Eagle.
  • Superior alignment: Green Star Royalties will be managed with top-quartile corporate governance principles under a diverse board, with two appointees each from Star Royalties and Agnico Eagle Mines.

Investment Approach

Originating and Cash Flow Focus

  • Pioneered the first carbon credit royalty in 2020 and advancing multiple new carbon credit opportunities
  • Will generate more than 560,000 carbon offset credits per annum from existing regenerative agriculture royalty
  • Will generate more than 11,000 carbon offset credits per annum from two existing forest royalties
  • Focused on originating premium carbon offset projects in both voluntary and compliance carbon markets
  • Prioritizing North American, nature-based investments that will result in premium carbon credits
  • Leveraging strong partnerships with project developers, capital providers and Indigenous groups

Green Star Royalties aims to provide shareholders with exposure to an anticipated dramatic rise in carbon credit pricing required to reach global greenhouse gas emission reduction targets by 2030, as outlined in the Paris Agreement. By pioneering innovative royalty structures based on our management team’s decades of experience in the mining royalty sector, Green Star Royalties is well positioned to fund new carbon offset projects into existence. The potential returns currently seen in the green sector are instrumental in Star Royalties’ objectives to simultaneously realize goodwill and good returns with intelligent, mutually beneficial, ESG-centred transactions.

Carbon Credits

The Paris Agreement reaffirms the goal to limit global temperature increase to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, with a secondary aggressive target of limiting that increase to 1.5°C. Many governments and thousands of corporations having since committed to significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and being carbon neutral by 2050.

Carbon offsets are generated from any activity that either prevents or reduces carbon emissions (such as renewable energies or methane capture technology) or improves carbon sequestration (such as regenerative agriculture or reforestation and conservation of forested lands or direct carbon capture technology).

Carbon offset credits are effectively a measurable net benefit from an activity versus the status quo. Their units are measured in tonnes of CO2e, meaning one carbon offset credit is equal to one tonne of CO2e emission reduction.

Portfolio

Global map showing highlighted countries and location pins of Green Star portfolio assets.
  • Rapidly growing portfolio of carbon credit royalties in both compliance and voluntary carbon markets

  • Existing royalty portfolio of nature-based projects to generate ~570,000 CC/year

  • Focus on North American investments with cash-flow visibility

Fourfold Expansion of Regenerative Agriculture Program

Fourfold Expansion of Regenerative Agriculture Program

In April 2022, Green Star Royalties announced a fourfold expansion of the CarbonNOW® carbon farming program that will further enable the Anew Climate and Locus Agricultural Solutions® (“Locus AG”) partnership to incentivize regenerative agriculture practices on 1.32 million acres of farmland. This program, funded by Green Star Royalties and originally announced in December 2021, will create premium, verified carbon credits that will reward the adoption of regenerative agriculture practices by North American farmers.

Green Star Royalties and Anew Climate expect the expanded program to start generating credits in 2023 from regenerative agriculture practices undertaken during the 2022 growing season. At current regenerative agriculture carbon credit prices, the enlarged program is expected to generate on average over 560,000 premium carbon credits per annum attributable to Green Star Royalties, which will be available for sale in the voluntary carbon marketplace.

The expansion of the project reflects Green Star Royalties’ first-mover advantage in a novel and highly scalable business model, with further opportunities to fund significantly larger projects across the North American farming industry.

Agnico Eagle logo

Strategic Investment by Agnico Eagle Mines

In March 2022, Star Royalties announced a strategic investment by Agnico Eagle Mines Limited into Green Star Royalties via a non-brokered private placement. As a result, Green Star Royalties is currently 61.9%-owned by Star Royalties, 35%-owned by Agnico Eagle, and 3.1%-owned by Management.

Agnico Eagle is a senior Canadian gold mining company and is recognized globally for its leading environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices. It is strongly aligned with Star Royalties’ values and philosophy on sustainability, making them an excellent strategic investor in Green Star Royalties. The strategic investment by Agnico Eagle has provided Green Star Royalties with a cornerstone shareholder, a significant recognition of value and a pathway to rapidly grow Green Star Royalties’ critical mass.

Star Royalties anticipates that Agnico Eagle’s strategic involvement will lead to an acceleration in Green Star Royalties’ growth trajectory and will allow Green Star Royalties to originate, fund and participate in additional, larger carbon credit opportunities. A more scalable build-out of the carbon credit investment strategy would allow Green Star Royalties to leverage its strong relationships and first-mover advantage to become the partner of choice in originating carbon credit and other green royalties, as well as attract capital from both generalist and ESG-focused investors.