Wheaton Precious Metals - Earnings Call - Q3 2025
November 7, 2025
Transcript
Speaker 0
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Wheaton Precious Metals 2025 third quarter results conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press Star, then the number one on your telephone keypad, or type your question in the Q&A box of the webinar. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press Star two. Thank you. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded on Friday, November 7, 2025, at 11:00 A.M. Eastern Time. I will now turn the conference over to Emma Murray, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Speaker 6
Thank you, Operator. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for participating in today's call. I'm joined today by Randy Smallwood, Wheaton's Chief Executive Officer, Haytham Hodaly, President, Curt Bernardi, EVP Strategy and General Counsel, Vincent Lau, Chief Financial Officer, Wes Carson, VP Mining Operations, and Neil Burns, VP Corporate Development. For those not currently viewing the webcast, please note that a PDF version of this slide presentation is available on the presentation's page of our website. Some of the comments on today's call may include forward-looking statements. Please refer to slide two for important cautionary information and disclosures. It should be noted that all figures referred to on today's call are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. With that, I'll turn the call over to Randy Smallwood.
Speaker 4
Thank you, Emma, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Wheaton's third quarter results of 2025. We are pleased to announce that our portfolio of long-life, low-cost assets has once again delivered strong results this quarter, enabling us to achieve record revenue, earnings, and operating cash flow for the first nine months of 2025. This performance underscores the Streaming Model's unique ability to generate predictable levered cash flows while maintaining a deferred payment schedule, an advantage not offered by the traditional royalty model, which requires full upfront payments and lacks embedded leverage. Of course, 100% of Wheaton's revenue comes from streams, providing a competitive advantage amongst others in the space.
As a result of strong performances by key assets, including Salobo and Antamina, coupled with the ramp-up of production at Blackwater and Goose, we recorded production of 173,000 gold-equivalent ounces this quarter and are firmly on track to achieve our 2025 production guidance of 600,000-670,000 gold-equivalent ounces. With over $1.2 billion in cash, an undrawn $2.5 billion revolving credit facility in Accordia, and strong growing projected cash flows, the company remains well-positioned to meet all funding commitments and pursue new and creative opportunities, continuing to grow our competitive dividend. Based on this strong financial foundation, Wheaton also continues to invest in innovation across the mining sector, as well as community initiatives alongside our mining partners. During the quarter, Wheaton launched its second annual Future of Mining Challenge, which this year focuses on advancing sustainable water management technologies.
Following the close of expressions of interest phase, 17 proposals have been selected to advance, with the winner to be announced at the PDAC conference in March of 2026. It is my pleasure to now turn the call over to our President, Haytham Hodaly.
Speaker 1
Thank you, Randy. Good morning, everyone.
Speaker 4
Alongside strong performances for our producing assets, Wheaton's growth profile was further de-risked through continued progress across six key development projects scheduled to come online over the next 24 months. Notably, several of these projects have announced accelerated timelines or expansions, reinforcing confidence in our previously forecasted 40% production growth by 2029. Furthermore, recent joint venture announcements marked significant progress for Copper World and Santo Domingo, further de-risking both projects. We are pleased to have announced two new streaming transactions over the past two months, one with Carcetti on the Hemlo mine and another with Waterton Global on the Spring Valley project, for which Neil Burns will share more details later in this call. These announcements reinforce our disciplined approach to capital deployment as we remain focused on identifying creative opportunities that are thoughtfully structured to deliver meaningful and lasting value for all stakeholders.
With a solid foundation of organic growth that continues to strengthen, the company is well-positioned to pursue opportunities that align with our long-term strategy and uphold our commitment to quality, as we have demonstrated with our most recent transactions. I would like to now turn the call over to Wes Carson, who will provide more details on our operating results. Wes?
Speaker 1
Thanks, Haytham. Good morning, everyone. Overall production in the third quarter was 173,000 ounces, a 22% increase from the prior year, primarily due to strong production at Salobo and Antamina, coupled with management of production at Blackwater. In Q3, Salobo produced 67,000 ounces of attributable gold, a 7% increase from the last year, driven by higher throughput, grades, and recovery. Vale reported that by the end of July, Salobo 3 had fully ramped up, and the entire complex is now operating at full capacity, consistently delivering strong operational performance. Vale continues to advance a series of growth-focused initiatives to enhance efficiencies and support long and medium-term production growth across the Salobo complex.
Constancia produced 19,500 ounces of attributable GEOs in Q3, a 9% improvement from last year, primarily driven by 19% higher gold production resulting from higher grades, partially offset by an 11% decline in silver output due to lower throughput. On September 23, 2025, Hudbay Minerals commented on the ongoing social unrest in Peru, where Constancia was impacted by local protests and illegal blockades. The mill was temporarily shut down as a safety precaution while authorities addressed the situation. On October 7, 2025, Hudbay announced that operations had resumed and throughput has since returned to normal levels. Peñasquito produced 2.1 million ounces of attributable silver in Q3, up 17% from last year, primarily driven by higher throughput and partially offset by lower grades, as mining transitioned back into the Peñasco pit, which contains lower silver grades relative to the Chile, Colorado pit.
In the third quarter, Blackwater produced 6,400 ounces of attributable GEOs, supported by higher-than-expected throughput and grades. Production for the year is expected to be weighted to the fourth quarter, with higher mill throughput rates and feed grades expected compared to Q3 2025. Artemis has also announced a 33% increase to phase one processing plant capacity, raising the nameplate from 6 million tons per annum to 8 million tons per annum, with a targeted completion date by the end of 2026. In addition, Artemis is nearing completion of front-end engineering and design work for an optimized and accelerated phase two expansion, with an investment decision expected before year-end. In Q3, Almeda restarted production of the zinc and lead concentrates at the Eldstrom mine, resulting in the resumption of attributable silver production to the company. During the quarter, Goose transitioned from commissioning to commercial production, which was announced on October 6th.
As reported by B2Gold, open pit and underground mining rates at the Yamaruk deposit have continued to meet or exceed expectations during the 30-day commercial production period. B2Gold has also reported that gold recoveries have been in line with expectations and are expected to average higher than 90% through Q4 2025. Wheaton's production outlook for 2025 remains unchanged, and we continue to believe that we are well on track to achieve our annual production guidance of 600,000-670,000 GEOs. At Salobo, attributable production is expected to remain steady through the remainder of the year, supported by solid mining rates and consistent plant performance through Salobo 1, 2, and 3. At Peñasquito, attributable production is forecast to be in line with budget and slightly down from Q3 due to steady mill performance and planned mine sequencing within the Peñasco pit.
At Antamina, attributable production is anticipated to strengthen in Q4, as the mine continues processing a higher portion of copper zinc ore. As mentioned by Randy, we remain confident that our catalyst-rich year is progressing as expected, with initial contributions from Mineral Park, Platreef, and Hemlo still forecast by the end of 2025. That concludes the operations overview, and with that, I will turn the call over to Vincent. Thank you. As detailed by Wes, production in Q3 was 173,000 GEOs, a 22% increase from last year, due mainly to stronger production from Salobo and Antamina, coupled with the commencement of production at Blackwater. Sales volumes were 138,000 GEOs, an increase of 13% from last year, driven by strong production from the second quarter, partially offset by a buildup of produced but not yet delivered, or PBND, due to timing differences between production and sales.
At the end of Q3, the PBND balance was approximately 152,000 GEOs, which is about 2.9 months of payable production. We expect PBND levels to stay at the higher end of our forecasted range of two to three months for the remainder of 2025, partly due to the ramp-up of new mines forecast in Q4. Strong commodity prices, coupled with solid production, led to record quarterly revenue of $476 million, an increase of 55% compared to last year. This increase was driven mainly by a 37% increase in commodity prices and a 13% increase in sales volumes. 58% of this revenue came from gold, 39% from silver, and the rest from palladium and cobalt. With silver recently outpacing gold and reaching record highs, our substantial silver exposure sets us apart from our peers and positions us well to benefit from the current pricing momentum.
Net earnings increased by 138% from the prior year to $367 million, while adjusted net earnings increased by 84% to $281 million. Operating cash flow increased to $383 million, a 51% increase from last year. These gains outpaced the increase in gold and silver prices during the same period, highlighting the leverage from fixed per ounce production payments, which made up 76% of our revenue. During the quarter, we made total upfront cash payments for streams of $250 million, including $156 million for Cañariaco, $50 million for Fenix, and $44 million for Keno Hill, as our portfolio of development assets continued to advance toward production. During the quarter, CMOC exercised its one-third buyback option under the Cangrejos-Pimpiana in exchange for a $102 million cash payment, resulting in a gain of $86 million and delivering an impressive pre-tax IRR of 185% to Wheaton.
Overall, net cash inflows amounted to $151 million in the quarter, resulting in a cash balance of approximately $1.2 billion at September 30th. For the Hemlo stream, we expect to make the entire $300 million upfront payment at deal close in Q4 2025 and begin recording production immediately thereafter. For the Spring Valley stream, the total upfront payment of $670 million will be paid in installments as various conditions are satisfied. This structure reflects our disciplined approach to providing funding throughout construction while ensuring the project remains adequately financed and on track at each stage. When these two streams are added to our existing stream funding commitments, we expect to disperse approximately $2.5 billion in upfront payments by the end of 2029. This reflects growth that we have seeded but not yet funded and demonstrates a highly efficient use of our capital.
With $1.2 billion in cash and expected annual operating cash flows of $2.5 billion over the next five years, we currently expect to fund these commitments without using debt. In addition, our fully undrawn $2 billion revolving credit facility, together with a $500 million accordion, provides exceptional financial flexibility and positions us with the strongest liquidity profile amongst our peers to pursue additional accretive opportunities. This concludes the financial summary. I'll now hand things over to Neil to walk through the details of Hemlo and Spring Valley streams.
Speaker 2
Thanks, Vincent. It's been a very busy few months for the corporate development team, and I'm delighted to provide an overview of our two most recent deal announcements, which further reinforce Wheaton's already sector-leading growth profile. On September 10th, Wheaton entered into a financing commitment with Carcetti Capital Corporation to support its proposed acquisition of the Hemlo mine. Upon deal close, which is anticipated in the fourth quarter, Carcetti intends to change its name to Hemlo Mining Corporation, or HMC. Wheaton's initial financing commitment included a gold stream of up to $400 million. However, following the strong success of its recent equity raise, which Wheaton supported with a lead order of $30 million, HMC has indicated its intention to proceed with a $300 million amount.
In this scenario, Wheaton expects to receive 10.13% of payable gold until a total of 136,000 ounces have been delivered, after which Wheaton will receive 6.75% of the payable gold until an additional 118,000 ounces have been delivered, after which Wheaton will receive 4.5% of the payable gold for the remaining life of the mine. These amounts would be adjusted proportionally if HMC were to elect a different stream amount. In return, Wheaton will make ongoing payments with gold ounces delivered equal to 20% of the spot price. Each of these dropdown thresholds will be subject to an adjustment if there are delays in deliveries relative to an agreed schedule commencing in 2033. If deliveries fall behind an agreed schedule by 10,000 ounces or more, the stream percentage will be increased by 5% until deliveries catch up, in a mechanism that's aimed to mitigate timing risk.
Assuming that Hemlo Mining Corporation elects an upfront payment amount of $300 million, attributable gold production is forecast to average over 14,000 ounces of gold per year for the first 10 years of production and over 10,000 ounces per year for the life of the mine. Hemlo presents an opportunity, a unique opportunity to add immediate attributable gold ounces from a politically stable jurisdiction backed by a long history of production and a very capable operating team. We're proud to support Hemlo Mining Corporation in its acquisition of a mine that has long been considered a cornerstone of Canada's mining industry, while also continuing to contribute to the unnamed momentum across the sector. Just yesterday, you will have seen Wheaton announce a gold stream on the Spring Valley project located in Nevada and owned by Waterton Global for cash consideration of $670 million.
This represents a compelling opportunity to secure a significant gold stream while supporting an existing partner in the development of a high-quality, low-cost gold mine located in a prolific mining jurisdiction. Under the agreement, Wheaton will receive 8% of the payable gold until 300,000 ounces have been delivered, after which Wheaton will receive 6% of the payable gold for the remaining life of the mine. In return, Wheaton will make ongoing payments for the ounces delivered equal to 20% of the spot price until the uncredited deposit has been fully reduced and 22% of the spot thereafter. Wheaton will also provide a $150 million cost overrun facility to provide further capacity to a project with an already conservative capital estimate.
Attributable gold production is forecast to average 29,000 ounces of gold per year for the first five years of production and over 25,000 ounces of gold per year for the first 10 years, first production expected in 2028. This production profile reflects an optimized scenario that incorporates updated mineral reserves and resource estimates beyond the feasibility, which was published earlier this year. Located in a proven mining district, Spring Valley comprises an extensive land package of over 30,000 acres, very little of which has been explored. In fact, planning mining activities will occur on concessions representing less than 5% of the total land package, leaving an opportunity for mine life extension with future exploration success. With its strong exploration potential, strategic location, and proven leadership team, we believe Spring Valley aligns perfectly with our commitment to investing into high-quality assets in stable jurisdictions.
We're excited to deepen our relationship with Waterton as they look to unlock the full potential of this asset. With that, I'll now hand the call back over to Randy.
Speaker 3
Thank you, Neil. In summary, Wheaton delivered another strong quarter marked by several key achievements. We delivered solid revenue, earnings, and cash flow, resulting in record year-to-date performance. We made notable progress on our near-term growth strategy with Aldestral resuming production of its zinc lead concentrates and the ramp-up of production at both Blackwater and Goose, reflecting the continued momentum of our catalyst-rich year. Our growth profile was further de-risked as construction progressed across key development projects, including Mineral Park, Platreef, Phoenix, El Domo, Kamoa-Kakula, and Cañariaco. In addition, joint venture agreements were announced for both Copper World and Santo Domingo, further de-risking these projects. We also announced two accretive precious metal streaming transactions located in low-risk jurisdictions, first on the currently operating Hemlo mine located in Ontario and just yesterday on Waterton Spring Valley project in Nevada.
We believe our 100% streaming revenue model provides significantly greater leverage to rising commodity prices while keeping us insulated from inflationary cost pressures, resulting in some of the highest margins in the precious metal space. We take pride in being the founders of the streaming model, an optimal alternative to traditional equity financing. Streaming provides upfront capital at a fair valuation without further share dilution, resulting in a dramatically improved return on invested capital and superior long-term value creation for the shareholders of our mining partners. Our balance sheet remains robust, providing ample flexibility to pursue well-structured, accretive, and high-quality streaming opportunities. Finally, we take pride in our community investment leadership amongst precious metal streamers and have always and will always support both our partners and the communities where we live and operate. With that, I would like to open up the call for questions, operator.
Speaker 0
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star two. There will be a brief pause while we compile the Q&A roster. Your first question is from Will Dowby from Berenberg. Your line is now open.
Yeah, good morning, Randy and team. Thank you very much for the call. I have two questions. Firstly, on future growth. You've got a really compelling growth profile, but I'm just sort of wondering how you think your volume growth stacks up versus peers, both on an absolute and a risk-adjusted basis. Sort of thinking in particular about some peers whose growth relies on restarts or on higher-risk jurisdictions. I'd be very interested to hear how you see your position in that context.
Speaker 3
Thank you, Tatum. Thank you for the question and good morning. From an absolute perspective and a relative perspective, I'll tell you, you know, we've got growth close to 250,000 ounces a year between now and 2029. That is certain growth. That's growth that's actually been permitted. The majority of that, I would say almost more than 90% of that's actually in construction and heading towards development, towards production in the next two to three years. There are two projects starting this year, a couple starting next year, and another one or two starting over the next couple of years after that. You know, it's a very, very strong growth profile.
In terms of the actual number of ounces, we're generating close to an additional 250,000 ounces, which is probably almost, you know, double what our next closest peer is actually generating in terms of growth over the same period. We are very excited about that. That excludes a lot of the growth that you're seeing here with these latest transactions as well, where, you know, with the Hemlo transaction, with the Waterton transaction, not to mention a significant number of our peers have also announced expansions, optimizations, et cetera, between now and then, which are also not included in that number. We are very optimistic and very excited about going forward.
Very clear, Haytham. Thank you. And then just a second question. You know, if we rewind a bit, say 10 years ago, your capital was largely going into repairing balance sheets. Five years ago was mostly sort of funding gold projects. Looking ahead, do you see the next five years as more about deploying capital into larger-scale copper projects given the current supply shortage there and the need for new mines to come online?
Yeah, definitely. I mean, the large porphyry copper gold systems that we're seeing and the high sulfidation epithermal systems that we're seeing through some of the diversified base metal producers, those are definitely an area of future growth as they require billions of capital, not millions or hundreds of millions, but actually billions of capital. Streaming naturally should play and likely will play a part in the overall financing packages. There are still lots of opportunities we're seeing outside of that space as well, though, Will, I would say, you know, with commodity prices where they're at specifically, you know, you look at silver as an example. Silver has had a nice run. That is prompting many to consider what their silver is worth within their existing portfolio.
For the first time in a long time, we're seeing more, not more silver, but we're seeing more silver opportunities, not more than gold, but we're seeing additional silver opportunities that we previously hadn't come to the market. We're very excited about that as well.
Thanks a lot, Haytham. Cheers. That's all from me. Thank you.
Thank you, Will.
Speaker 0
Thank you. Your next question is from Josh Wolfson from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.
Yeah, thanks very much. I had a question first on Spring Valley. Some of the technical information out there is a bit light. I know there's a 2014 43-101 and then a feasibility study earlier this year, at least a summary of which. I noticed that Wheaton provided some of its own interpretations of what the mine will look like. I guess just maybe drilling down on some of the assumptions, would Wheaton be able to provide some perspective on how it sees the asset, you know, in terms of, you know, what the underlying assumptions or changes in its perspective was versus the updated feasibility study and also, you know, what we should think about recoveries? I noticed there's a big difference between the original 2014 report and what was issued earlier this year. Thank you.
Speaker 4
Sure, Josh. It's Neil Burns here. Waterton did put out a feasibility study earlier this year, which was done, not surprisingly, with much lower gold prices. I believe the reserve pit was done at $1,700 gold. If you look on Solvus' website, they've updated their R&R, and I believe the reserves are at $1,800 and the resources perhaps at $2,200. They do model the recoveries, and they have updated those. Those are detailed in the footnotes of those R&R tables, and they do them separately by the redox state of oxide transition and sulfide, naturally with decreasing recoveries as you get into the sulfides. They split it between the ROM and the crush. I think that's a spot where you can get some additional color. That was just updated, I believe, earlier this week.
Speaker 3
Josh, I mean, Spring Valley is so similar to hundreds of different operations down in Nevada, right? You're looking at a heap leach operation that's going to have crushed components. It's always going to be focused on the highest grade portion of whatever's coming out of the pit and then run of mine. And, you know, one of the areas of upside that I see in this, that we see in this asset, is the fact that, as Neil mentioned, the pricing for the reserves and even the resources are about half of what the spot price is right now. And the waste dump is about the same distance away from the pit as the heap pad.
You know, the ROM processing capacity, you know, the decisions as to where that truck dumps that ore as it has lower grade material, but it's still economic because the spot price is $4,000. I think there's incredible upside on this asset to even see more production than what's being forecast by Waterton. Just in terms of operational flexibility, it's a simple project. The highest grade of the day will go through the crusher and everything else. It'll be a choice as to whether you put it into a waste dump or put it into a ROM heap leach pad and push it forward. I just, you know, they're pretty simple. Nevada, there's lots of capacity for heap. It's a big flat area just to the east of the ore body that has all sorts of expansion capacity.
It is a classic Nevada operation that we see as it is going to be going for it. We are excited about what the real potential is here. The exploration over and above it, as Neil highlighted during the talk, so little of this property has actually been poked at. It is right north of the Rochester operation, which continues to shine for Coeur. Florida Canyon is to the north. It is right in a corridor that has a lot of mining history. We do think that this asset is well set up to deliver.
All right, thank you. One more question. I know we've talked about some of the Nevada premiums that are out there. This might apply in that situation. You know, when you look at the value opportunity here and the valuation paid, you know, how would you assess this in comparison to some of the public consolidation opportunities that could be out there, you know, depending on the prices, obviously? Thank you.
Yeah. I mean, consolidation, when I look at, you know, I mean, the biggest comment I'd have on the consolidation side is that, you know, what we've found is that a lot of the smaller companies have had to give up structural weaknesses, structural flaws in their agreements to try and get scale. And we've seen some pretty large-sized examples of that recently with deals scale of $1 billion with zero security backing it. You know, and we just see issues with the value of some of those transactions, some of those assets within the, you know, M&A side. And, you know, as we like to say, we think there's no stream as good as a Wheaton stream. We invented the model and we continue to try and perfect it.
I think Hemlo was a real step up in terms of how to actually, you know, deliver value not only to our shareholders, but to our partners in terms of support and strength all the way across and trying to, you know, find that great balance of satisfying both sides of the spectrum. You know, the acquisition side, most of those companies do trade at a bit of a premium to NAV. We, you know, whereas when it comes to going out and looking at new assets, we can find these things at NAV or slightly less than that. It is still attractive compared to an equity financing or to other alternative forms of financing for these companies that are looking for capital.
As Haytham and now Neil, the team has done a great job of continuing to put the capital back to work, looking at opportunities like this. I think Spring Valley is a great example of that. It is a lower-risk jurisdiction. It is our first real footprint into Nevada, which is a jurisdiction we have looked at for a long time, but we have seen some incredibly expensive transactions in our eyes take place in Nevada. This one we feel is attractively priced, especially when we go over the upside that we, you know, that I just finished describing to you. You know, we are pretty excited about having this one. You know, we like this path. We are always looking at the M&A side. If we do see some opportunities in that space that make sense, we would act.
To date, we're doing, you know, we find better value in just sourcing new opportunities. We are blessed with an industry that always needs capital. So that's our business, supplying capital.
Great. Thank you very much.
Speaker 0
Thank you. Your next question is from Tanya Yagazkonic from Scotiabank. Your line is now open.
Speaker 7
Oh, great. Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for taking my questions. Some of them have been answered already. Maybe Haytham, for you, as I think about the environment, the opportunities out there, one of my questions was on silver. I think you touched it a little bit. You're seeing more on the silver side than previously. Are we seeing some big silver opportunities?
Speaker 3
You know what? That's interesting. It's funny you asked that question. There are some larger silver opportunities that are out there, but we're being very proactive to go out and find those. You know, with that, I'm going to turn the mic over to Neil to just tell you a little bit about the current environment for growth.
Speaker 4
Sure. Thanks, Haytham. Hi, Tanya. In terms of volume, we continue to be as active as we've ever been. We have literally over a dozen active opportunities in the pipeline. From a stage perspective, it's interesting because we've seen an increase in operating opportunities, which is great to see. It's something we hadn't seen for a number of years. It's also been driven by the increase in M&A activities with the majors selling off some non-core assets. Metal mix, which you already touched on, is probably 60/40 gold, silver, I would say, at this time. In terms of size, the majority are in the $200-$300 million range. We also have a couple of exciting billion-plus opportunities, but those are a bit longer lead time.
Speaker 3
The one thing, Tanya, that I would add on the silver side, your question specifically on silver, keep in mind that most silver is produced as a byproduct, actually, from base metal operations. You know, the one thing that we're hopeful is that with the strength that we've seen in silver prices of late, perhaps some of those base metal operators would like to crystallize some of that value and help strengthen their own balance sheets and fund their own growth. That does fall into an opportunity set with this strength that we've seen where we may be able to pick up some, as Neil said, some operating access to, you know, silver streams on operating assets. We're out there pounding the pavement. You know, with these kinds of silver prices, there's definitely an interest in terms of learning more.
Stay tuned.
Speaker 7
Yeah, it's just I've been hearing more on the silver side. I just wondered if, you know, and I've heard of some of the big ones, like billion-dollar silver deals. I just wondered if those were something that you were focused on.
Speaker 3
Yeah. You know me well enough, Tanya, that I've always liked silver a little bit more than gold. If there's opportunities in the space, we're definitely trying to track that down. Neil and the team are doing a great job on that front.
Speaker 7
When you mentioned the $200-$300 million range, were those mainly on the gold opportunities?
Speaker 4
They are a mixture, actually. There's, I would say, probably an even mixture between gold and silver within those $200-$300 million opportunities.
Speaker 7
Okay. Are you also seeing, because I am hearing, and I do not know if that is the same, that there is probably more assets for sale within the senior gold companies than the market expects? Like, yes, we have seen, you know, Newmont sell out their, you know, new crush assets and Barrick has cleaned up their portfolio somewhat. I am hearing that there is also more coming out of the senior space than expected. Is that what you are seeing as well?
Speaker 3
Maybe I'll answer that, Tanya, just with regards to divestitures of non-core assets from senior producers. I will say that, you know, we did see a lot of that over the last 12 to 18 months, for sure. Right now, it has declined quite a bit, but obviously, with changing management teams, changing focus of various companies, we do expect that to start again. We haven't seen a lot of it yet.
Speaker 7
Okay. So you're expecting more of that to come?
Speaker 3
We hope so. We'd love to be able to support another acquirer of some of these high-quality assets. Keep in mind, a lot of these assets, when they were within these senior companies, they're being valued at a reserve base of, you know, I'll call it, Neil mentioned one $1,700. Barrick was doing theirs at $1,400 previously. You know, you start using numbers of, you know, $2,100, $2,500, you go from a six-year reserve life to a 20-year reserve life. I think a lot of that is probably something we're going to see here in the near term.
Speaker 7
Just your Spring Valley acquisition, you know, if you assume that all of the resources get converted and you can mine out, you know, 4 million ounces minable, let's say, would it be fair to say at spot that you'd be in that sort of 4%-5% internal rate of return, like in line with the cost of capital?
Speaker 3
Based on our analysis, I can tell you our numbers are higher than that. Based on exploration upside that we've seen, based on expansions of the existing pit dimensions, based on higher lower cutoff grades, we are getting a higher rate than what you're quoting there. I will leave it to you to figure out what your actual rate is based on how many years of additional exploration upside you want to add on top of that. We're pretty optimistic that eventually this will get to double digit.
Speaker 4
I will add, Tanya, that the resource is drill-limited. You know, there's plenty of exploration potential, wide open mineralization. You know, it's the drill data that's actually the limiting factor on the resource, not the economics.
Speaker 7
Yeah. No, no. I mean, you know, I just looked at it on a 4 million ounce minable scenario.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Speaker 7
Okay.
Speaker 3
I've seen enough of it down there to think that there's probably even more than that.
Speaker 7
Yeah. As I said, it's in a good camp, so those camps go on for a while. Maybe if I could ask a modeling question. I saw the updated DDNA in the portfolio. Can someone just remind or re-guide us on your depreciation and, you know, guidance for what you expect for 2025 and maybe 2026 with the new portfolio updates?
Speaker 4
Sure. Hey, Tanya. It's Vince here. We did update our depletion part of normals. Not a big change. You know, Antamina, we saw a bit of a drop because they had some tailings slip there. You know, Stillwater, a little bit higher just because of the change in mine plan. But all the detailed depletion rates we've now put into the financials in the MD&A. You can see exactly what has happened there and help you out on the modeling front.
Speaker 7
All right. I forget what the guidance was corporately at the beginning of the year, but yeah, I'll go back and look.
Speaker 4
I think net-net is not going to change materially going forward. I would, you know, roughly say it's at the same levels going forward.
Speaker 7
Okay. My final question is, and maybe a reminder, I've seen a lot of the other companies sell out investment portfolios of, you know, equity interests. Can you just remind me what's left within yours?
Speaker 3
Yeah. We've got—I don't have the list in front of me, Tanya. I can tell you. And it's listed on our, I think, on our—at least some of it's broken down, some of the larger positions. But we have about a $260 million U.S. equity book right now. I can tell you we're not looking to divest of any of those positions. Those positions are all with our existing partners that are ramping up operations. We are going to continue to be strong supporters. Eventually, there may be some liquidity events where we can actually get off our positions. At this point in time, we're—you know, if nothing else, we'd be helping our partners as they need it going forward to continue to strengthen their balance sheets.
Speaker 7
Okay. That is good to know. Thank you so much for taking my questions.
Speaker 3
Thanks, Tanya.
Speaker 0
Thank you. Your next question is from Morgan Pradier from Veritas Investment Research. Carolina, is that open?
Thank you. In terms of Antamina, I noticed that the depreciation dropped in half almost. What happened there?
Speaker 4
Depreciation dropped. Oh, depreciation dropped, yes.
The depletion.
Sorry.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Speaker 4
Yes. Yes. Go ahead. Thanks, Martin. Yeah. So that really is, as Vincent mentioned, it's because of the tailings expansion. Right now, Antamina marks their reserves with tailings capacity. In Q1 this year, Antamina managed to secure the permits for further expansion of the current tailings facility. That increased the reserves dramatically, which then drops that depletion rate down. That's the reasoning behind that.
Speaker 3
Essentially, what happened was the tailings capacity doubled, which meant that the, you know, with that much, the depletion, you know, that much more the reserve doubled because of that excess capacity. Because with that tailings capacity, then you could class it as a reserve. It is, you know, the resource there is very, very high geological confidence. Antamina's approach is that it is not a reserve until it actually has permitted tailings capacity. The fact that it went up just meant that we had a substantive increase in reserves, which means the depletion rate drops.
Okay. Perfect. I understand. In terms of Salobo, should we expect a strong Q4? I thought that there was like a little bit of higher grade in Q4.
Speaker 4
Salobo is reasonably flat in Q4. We are expecting—we have seen very strong performance through the year this year. We were just on site at the end of September there. Really, they are planning to continue on as they have for the rest of the year here. Reasonably flat for Q4.
Speaker 3
They moved forward a little bit of preventative maintenance that was scheduled in Q4 into Q3. You know, that should help a little bit on the Q4 side. You know, there was a short stint in Q3, so.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Okay. Yeah, that will be all. Thank you.
Speaker 3
Thanks, Martin.
Speaker 0
Thank you. Your next question is from George Eddy from UBS. Carolina, is that open?
Speaker 1
Yeah. Hi, Tim. Thanks for the call and nice update here again. Can I ask about the Spring Valley stream? Sorry, I joined a little bit late, so I may have missed this. The payment profile, can you remind me of the various conditions for the payment and the profile timeline, please?
Speaker 3
Yeah, you bet. I mean, we're going to instill, I would say, of the $670 million, the majority of that will go in during development. There'll be a small amount that goes in upfront, approximately, I would say, $310 million over the next—well, close to $310 million over the next 6-12 months, I would say. Thereafter, the remainder will go in alongside the company's equity investment. We put in $120 million, they put in $120 million, and we do that a couple of times until we get to the $670 million number. It's drip-fed over the construction, other than a small amount ahead of construction starting, just to get some equipment orders in and stuff like that. It's drip-fed over the construction, which is likely to start shortly.
Speaker 1
Yeah. Okay. No, that's great. Thank you. Just talking before about all these asset opportunities coming up, some large ones, like that $900,000 per ounce profile—or sorry, the $870, rather, GEO profile by 2029. Is it fair to assume there's potentially a bit of upside here with the new streams like Spring Valley? Given the environment is so strong right now, do you think that's a fair—
Speaker 3
Not only.
Speaker 1
Realization is a bit of upside?
Speaker 3
Yeah. Not only that. A lot of our existing operations and startups have announced accelerated plans for startup and for expansions. We have Blackwater moving forward with expansions. Platreef has accelerated their ramp-up and production over that five-year period. Salobo itself also is fine-tuning in terms of trying to improve throughputs and recoveries. And, you know, even the existing portfolio without the new acquisitions has made that forecast look very conservative and gets us even closer to that million-ounce number sooner than later.
Speaker 1
Yeah. No, don't disagree. That's very clear. Thanks, Tim. Thanks.
Speaker 3
Thank you, George. Thank you, everyone, for your time today dialing in. Our record-breaking performance over the first nine months of this year underscores Wheaton's position as a premier low-risk choice for investors seeking exposure to gold and silver. Recent transactions in low-risk jurisdictions underscore the quality of opportunities we are pursuing. Our corporate development team continues to see strong demand for streaming as a source of capital. We are excited about the pipeline of opportunities that lie in front of us. With our high-quality operating portfolio, 100% streaming revenue, sector-leading growth profile, and unwavering commitment to sustainability, we offer shareholders one of the most effective vehicles for investing in precious metals. We thank all of our stakeholders for their continued support as we enter this exciting period of sustained organic growth. We look forward to speaking with you all again soon. Thank you.
Speaker 0
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes the conference call for today. Thank you for participating. Please disconnect your lines.