Orion Resource Partners LP, a global investment firm specializing in metals and materials, today announces the sale of a minority interest in Sweetwater Royalties, a private industrial minerals royalty company, to a Canadian pension fund. In this transaction Orion has sold an 8% stake in Sweetwater for approximately $100 million, implying a ~$1.9 billion enterprise value for 100% of Sweetwater Royalties. Orion will retain a 67% majority ownership share in the asset, having sold a 25% stake to Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in March last year for approximately $220 million.
Sweetwater was established by Funds managed by Orion in 2020 to manage the long-term, stable cashflow generated from its mineral estate in Wyoming containing 10.5 billion tons of trona resources, the world’s largest trona deposit. Trona is a mineral that is processed into soda ash, an ingredient with an extensive and critical set of uses. An essential component in many industrial applications, particularly glass manufacturing, soda ash is also used to produce a vast range of everyday products. Natural, trona-based soda ash, such as that produced by Sweetwater, has a significantly lower environmental impact compared to synthetic soda ash.
The Company’s Land Grant extends to over 4.5 million mineral acres of surface and mineral estate holdings in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and Michigan, providing an expansive royalty platform across industrial minerals, base metals, and renewables. Since establishment, Sweetwater has received over $280 million in royalty payments, with the potential for substantial further growth given the new mines under development by WE Soda Ltd. and Sisecam Chemicals, the global dominance of the trona deposit, the scalability of capacity from existing operations, as well as long-term optionality from its large land and mineral estate holdings.
Under Orion’s ownership, the management team at Sweetwater has implemented several value creation initiatives, including setting up joint ventures with companies to pursue renewable energy initiatives such as large-scale wind and solar projects and identifying two new world-class soda ash projects. With its production-linked revenue stream, capacity for co-investment, strong sustainability credentials and exceptionally large size allowing for economies of scale, Sweetwater exhibits many of the hallmarks of a classic Orion transaction.
Oskar Lewnowski, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Orion Resource Partners LP said: “This is an outstanding investment for Orion. The sheer scale of the asset, which allows Sweetwater effective control of 90% of the world’s supply of trona resources, provides us significant advantages and has the potential to deliver exceptional, realizable growth over the long-term. We bear this responsibility with care, and through our renewable initiatives we hope to create lasting positive impact for the environment and surrounding communities. We look forward to working with our strategic partners and co-owners to continue this important work.”
Damon Barber, Chief Executive Officer of Sweetwater, added: “We welcome another capable partner with whom to deliver our growth strategy with Sweetwater. We continue to build and hone our operations to ensure we can meet the ongoing demand for our assets. With the growing importance of sustainability, demand for soda ash with the lowest environmental impact will continue to grow.”
About Orion Resource Partners LP
Orion Resource Partners LP is a global investment firm specializing in the metals and materials critical to sustainable economic growth and the energy transition, with more than $8 billion of assets under management and a team of more than 80 professionals across six global offices. Orion has successfully invested across the metals and materials value chain for over a decade, operating complementary investment strategies spanning the full liquidity spectrum, finding and capturing opportunities driven by the long-term trends of global decarbonization, the constrained supply of critical resources, and advancements in industrial technologies. Orion is a signatory to the UN PRI and the IFC Performance Standards on Environmental and Social Sustainability. For more information visit www.orionrp.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
