Skip to content

About Us

Empress Royalty is a global royalty and streaming creation company providing investors with a diversified portfolio of gold and silver investments.

Since publicly listing in December 2020, Empress Royalty has built a portfolio of precious metal investments and is actively investing in mining companies with development and production stage projects who require additional non-dilutive capital.

Empress Royalty applies a financially disciplined approach to investing in these cost-effective operations with strong experienced management teams and excellent upside potential. This business model capitalizes on the stable cash flow and long-term capital gains of streaming and royalty investments which allow Empress Royalty to generate revenue and create value for its shareholders.

Empress Royalty is pleased to have Endeavour Financial and Terra Capital as Strategic Partners who allow Empress Royalty to not only access global investment opportunities but also bring unique mining finance expertise, deal structuring and access to capital markets.

US $ 2 B

In Mining Finance Transactions

159

years

of experience

Learn How royalty & streaming companies create value

OUR INVESTMENT MANAGER

Endeavour Financial

Endeavour Financial, with offices in London, UK and George Town, Cayman Islands, is one of the top mining financial advisory firms, with an award-winning track record of success in the mining industry, specialising in arranging multi-sourced funding solutions for development companies. 

Endeavour Financial, founded in 1988, has a well-established reputation of achieving success with over US$500M in royalty and stream finance, US$4B in debt finance and US$28B in mergers and acquisitions.  The Endeavour team has diverse experience in both natural resources and finance, including investment bankers, geologists, mining engineers, cash flow modellers and financiers.

Board of directors

David’s finance career has spanned over thirty years. Before joining Endeavour Financial seventeen years ago, he was at Barclays Capital and Standard Bank, where he sourced, structured, and syndicated finance for mining Projects and Companies globally (including derivative products). David has extensive experience of the North/South American, European, CIS, and African markets. He has arranged over US$12 billion of funding for mining companies and has vast experience of management and capital markets. David is also the Chairman of Luca Mining and Executive Chairman of Empress Royalty.

Alexandra has over 20 years of experience in the mining industry. Alexandra started at PricewaterhouseCoopers before joining Endeavour Financial, a global mining finance advisory firm. During her investment banking career in London, she was Director Structured Financing and involved in the successful completion of over US$1.5 billion in financings for clients.

Jeremy has over 13 years of experience across funds management and financial advisory. He has run the Terra Capital Natural Resource Fund since 2010 and has returned over 500% since inception. Jeremy has run the Terra Capital Green Metals Fund since 2021. Prior to Terra Capital, Jeremy worked at UK Hedge Fund RAB Capital’s Special Situations Fund, rated the “Best Energy and Natural Re source Fund” by Hedge Fund Review and ranked No.1 in Barron’s Hedge Fund 50 Global rankings in 2007, during Jeremy’s tenure. Prior to RAB Jeremy worked at Azure Capital, a boutique investment bank. Here he worked on numerous M&A transactions and financings in the resources and small industrials sectors. Jeremy has a Bachelor of Commerce, Economics and Arts.

Natascha Kiernan (J.D., ICD.D) is an experienced corporate director, lawyer, and strategic advisor. She received her J.D. from Columbia University and has held senior positions with several prominent international law firms, including in the New York and London offices of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Ms. Kiernan has 20 years experience advising governments, financial institutions, and corporations on complex, multi-billion dollar M&A and finance transactions and was previously selected as a “Top 40 Under 40” rising legal star by the UK’s Financial News. She has extensive sector experience with energy, infrastructure, and mining and has been involved in a wide variety of renewable energy and clean tech projects.

Ms. Kiernan is the founder and principal of Bellevue Strategic Advisory and currently serves as Vice Chair of the BC Energy Regulator. She also serves as an independent director of several public companies, including Green Impact Partners, which is focused on becoming a leading producer of decarbonizing energy in North America.

Ms Kiernan is a frequent panel speaker and presenter on topics including M&A, corporate governance, ESG, and the energy transition. She holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors and the CCB.D designation in Climate Change and Biodiversity from Competent Boards. Ms. Kiernan is also a strong advocate for increasing diversity across organizations and serves as a mentor for both Women Get On Board and Dress for Success.

Paul has over 20 years’ experience in corporate finance and in the last 17 years, whilst at Endeavour, has focussed on financings in the natural resources sector. Paul has extensive experience in cash flow modelling, financial analysis, valuation, debt advisory, deal structuring and the negotiation, documentation and execution of mining finance transactions and re-financings. Prior to joining Endeavour in 2006, he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers in their Valuation & Strategy department and was involved in valuation assignments and corporate transactions across a range of sectors and also previously worked as a chemical engineer in the petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries. Paul is a CFA charterholder. 

Wes Roberts, M.Sc., P.Eng., MBA is a professional mining engineer with over 40 years’ experience specializing in the economic evaluation and development of mineral deposits. Mr. Roberts is a Director of Sparton Resources, Golden Share Resources, Aurum Lake Mining and Canadian Gold Miner. Over his career, Mr. Roberts has gained extensive experience in mineral exploration, mining operations, Project engineering and management as well as diverse mining engineering experience that includes precious metals, base metals, iron ore and industrial minerals. Mr. Roberts has held numerous positions in the mining industry, which include Canada Talc Limited, Derry Michener Booth & Wahl, Davey International, Bharti Engineering, GMP Securities, Inco Ltd, Breakwater Resources Ltd (VP Corporate Development), VP Mining to Heenan Blaikie LLP, and Mineral Engineering Consultant with Dorsey & Whitney LLP, and most recently as Co-Chair Technical Committee at Sigma Lithium. Since 2011, as a consultant, he has actively advised and represented the Inuit Regional Associations of the Territory of Nunavut, (Arctic, Canada) and several Ontario based First Nations. Mr. Roberts holds a B.Sc. (Mining Engineering) and M.Sc. (Mining Engineering) from Queen’s University, and an M.B.A. (Finance) from the Schulich School of Business (York University). 

ADVISORS

David Laing has over 45 years experience in mining operations, projects, engineering studies, mining finance, M&A, and corporate development in both precious and base metals. Formerly a Technical Director of Endeavour Financial, David is responsible for mine technical analysis and has previously held positions as COO at Endeavour Mining Corp., Equinox Gold Corp, True Gold Mining Inc., and Quintana Resources. David has also held senior positions at Standard Bank, technical consulting at MRDI, and various roles at Billiton and Royal Dutch Shell’s mining business. David brings significant global technical expertise to Empress.

Allison is a biologist and environmental scientist with over 25 years of experience in permitting, regulatory processes and environmental compliance, working with Indigenous organizations, resource companies, regulatory agencies, indigenous, territorial and federal governments. She served as the Vice President of Sustainability at Kaminak Gold Corp. until it was acquired by Goldcorp in 2016. Along the way, Allison found that her passion and calling leaned more to the areas of mentorship, advocacy, education and training. As Compliance Specialist at the Ekati Diamond Mine, Allison was part of the team that lead the mine toward ISO 14001 certification. As an independent consultant Allison has worked in Yukon, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Alaska and Botswana. From 2018 through 2023, Allison assisted Lucara Diamond Corp. with all matters related to environment, social and governance, developing and implementing a 5 year ESG Strategy and assisting with the environmental and social components of Lucara’s $220M USD financing for the underground expansion project. She is the Chair of the Board of Tectonic Metals Inc. and a Director on the Alberta Energy Regulator Board as well as the Yukon University Foundation Board.

Rick is CEO and director of Forum Energy Metals Corp., and a director of Impact Silver Corp. and Midnight Sun Mining Corp. Mr. Mazur, P. Geo, MBA is a geoscientist who has held positions in the international exploration and mining industry for over 40 years as a project geologist, financial analyst and senior executive on uranium, gold, base metals, coal and industrial minerals projects. Mr. Mazur graduated with a B.Sc. in Geology from the University of Toronto in 1975 and obtained an MBA from Queen’s University in 1985. Mr. Mazur worked for seven years (1985 to 1991) as an integral member of the management team of Canamax Resources Inc. which discovered, financed and built three Canadian gold mines, two of which currently remain in production.

management

Alexandra has over 20 years of experience in the mining industry. Alexandra started at PricewaterhouseCoopers before joining Endeavour Financial, a global mining finance advisory firm. During her investment banking career in London, she was Director Structured Financing and involved in the successful completion of over US$1.5 billion in financings for clients.

Nora has over 15 years of experience negotiating, structuring and managing large-scale mining transactions in both legal and commercial roles. Prior to joining the Company, Nora was a Managing Director with Nebari Partners, a private capital firm focused on the mining industry, and was previously General Counsel of a multi-national mining services company and partner with several international and boutique law firms. Throughout her career, Nora has closed over US$40B in transactions in the mining, metals and energy sectors and has led a number of notable global mining transactions. Ms. Pincus received a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Denver.

Ms. Frakes has over 12 years of experience in public communications.  Most recently, she served as Vice President of Communications for Torq Resources, where she was a key spokesperson for the company and played a pivotal role in augmenting investor engagement and increasing brand recognition through comprehensive marketing iniatives.  Ms. Frakes has also held positions in investor relations with three other junior exploration companies, contributing significantly to their inception, public listings, equity financings and overall development.  Her career in public communications began as a news reporter and anchor at CBC and CTV. Ms. Frakes holds a Bachelor’s degree in English with a Certificate in Journalism from Loyola Marymount University.

Xavier Wenzel began his career in public practice in 1996. As a principal at Fehr & Associates, a registered accounting practice, and a member of The Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia, Xavier has considerable audit and tax expertise, as well as extensive experience with financial and regulatory reporting for public companies under IFRS and US GAAP. Xavier has provided consulting services as an advisor on complex technical accounting issues. Xavier has spent several years providing senior level accounting services for publicly traded companies and currently holds CFO positions for Chakana Copper Corp, Pure Energy Minerals Ltd. and NuLegacy Gold Corporation. Formerly his CFO roles included Ely Gold Royalties Inc. and Guanajuato Silver Corp. (formerly Vangold Mining Corp).

Michelle Borthwick is a corporate finance and governance professional with over 25 years of diverse senior-level experience with public and private corporations operating primarily in the mining and natural resource industries. She has extensive experience in the areas of equity and debt financings, domestic and cross-border M&A and general corporate and commercial transactions and has provided executive leadership teams with strategic advice and hands-on support in all phases of corporate growth. Additionally, Michelle is well versed in all areas of public company governance, administration and reporting requirements and has advised boards and management of multi-listed public and private corporations on best practices. Prior to founding her own consulting firm in 2018, she was Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Corporate Secretary of TSX-listed Endeavour Mining Corporation where she had key roles managing and facilitating various corporate and financial transactions and compliance. Prior to Endeavour Mining, Michelle was VP Corporate Finance of its predecessor financial advisory company, Endeavour Financial Corporation.

Corporate Governance

The following is a summary of Empress Royalty’s approach to Corporate Governance. The CEO and CFO report to the Board of Directors and are both required to act in accordance with the scope of authority provided to them by the Board. The Board does not have any standing committees other than the Audit Committee and the Investment Committee. The Board delegated the authority to the Investment Committee which comprises David Rhodes (Chair), Jeremy Bond and Alexandra Woodyer Sherron to be responsible for the following:

  1. Review proposed investment opportunities to ensure they meet the investment criteria as established by the Board;
  2. Advise and negotiate the terms of any investment;
  3. Review and recommend funding for the investment opportunities;
  4. Oversee legal, technical and know your client due diligence on investment opportunities;
  5. Identify and manage potential conflicts of interest;
  6. Make recommendations to the Board; and
  7. Review the performance and outlook of the portfolio.