Orion Resource Partners Sells Minority Stake in Sweetwater Royalties to Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan
Investment will support continued growth of a world-class industrial minerals, base metals, and renewables royalty platform
New York, NY – March 15, 2023 – Orion Resource Partners (“Orion”), a global asset management firm that specializes in metals and critical minerals, today announced the sale of a minority stake in Sweetwater Royalties (“Sweetwater”), a base metals and industrial minerals royalty company, to Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (“Ontario Teachers’”). According to the details of the transaction, Ontario Teachers’ has acquired a 25% equity stake in Sweetwater for cash consideration of $221.6 million.
Oskar Lewnowski, Founder and Group CEO of Orion said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Ontario Teachers’ to continue growing the Sweetwater business and expanding its royalty portfolio. The soda ash market has remained resilient over the past two years, and we are continuing to see robust demand for the future. Sweetwater’s assets are particularly well positioned, based off quality, location and rarity of trona ore deposits, to benefit from continued growth in demand.”
Since Orion established Sweetwater in 2020, the company has made several notable expansions and developments. Specifically, Sweetwater signed a lease and royalty agreement with WE Soda for the development of a greenfield soda ash mine; it is developing a renewables platform through the leasing of land in exchange for wind and solar royalties; and it is pursuing non-operating partnerships with third-party operating partners regarding battery metal projects.
Damon Barber, Chief Executive Officer of Sweetwater, added: “We are pleased to welcome Ontario Teachers’ as a partner, alongside Orion, as we look to build on the momentum and strong market position that we’ve developed over the past two years. We look forward to continuing to deliver strong value to our partners as we expand our portfolio.”
Christopher Metrakos, Senior Managing Director, Natural Resources at Ontario Teachers’, said: “We are excited to partner with Orion in the ownership of Sweetwater and work together to support the growth of the business. Sweetwater has a unique mineral acreage position across the largest natural trona deposit globally and significant growth optionality across its asset base.”
Sweetwater currently owns 17 cash flowing royalties across soda ash, renewables and industrial minerals and owns 7 royalties on soda ash and renewables projects under development.
About Orion Resource Partners
Orion is an $8.2 billion (as of December 31, 2022) global asset management firm that specializes in institutional investment strategies in precious and base metals and minerals, many of which are currently leveraged to stimulus and infrastructure spend and the push to decarbonize. Headquartered in NYC and with offices in Denver, London, and Sydney, Orion includes a team of 65 professionals with backgrounds in metals finance, physical metals logistics and sales, and in-house technical professionals responsible for risk assessment and portfolio management. For more information visit www.orionresourcepartners.com.
About Sweetwater Royalties
Sweetwater Royalties owns more than four million mineral acres and approximately one million fee surface acres in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado (the “Land Grant”) as well as four hundred and fifty thousand mineral acres in the Upper Michigan area near the Eagle Mine. Sweetwater Royalties provides our partners with opportunities to develop natural resources as well as access to grazing and the renewable energy sector along the Land Grant. The Land Grant asset package dates to the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 and provides value to Sweetwater through a diverse array of natural resources, primarily trona. For more information visit www.sweetwaterroyalties.com
About Ontario Teachers’
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers') is a global investor with net assets of $247.2 billion as at December 31, 2022. We invest in more than 50 countries in a broad array of assets including public and private equities, fixed income, credit, commodities, natural resources, infrastructure, real estate and venture growth to deliver retirement income for 336,000 working members and pensioners.
With offices in Hong Kong, London, Mumbai, San Francisco, Singapore and Toronto, our more than 400 investment professionals bring deep expertise in a broad range of sectors and industries. We are a fully funded defined benefit pension plan and have earned an annual total-fund net return of 9.5% since the plan's founding in 1990. At Ontario Teachers', we don't just invest to make a return, we invest to shape a better future for the teachers we serve, the businesses we back, and the world we live in. For more information, visit otpp.com and follow us on Twitter @OtppInfo.