Mining’s future is up for sale

AI desk brief

Mining streaming and royalties have evolved from niche financing tools into a multibillion-dollar asset class, with Wheaton Precious Metals agreeing to pay $4.3 billion for a silver stream on BHP’s Antamina production and secondary-market deals such as Empress Royalty’s $62 million Tongon stream purchase. The article argues that record/high metals prices are making streams more attractive for developers while also creating a more active market for buying, selling and repricing existing claims on future output.

Executives cited say higher interest rates, tight equity markets and shareholder dilution concerns are pushing miners toward streaming, with Wheaton describing an internal WACC threshold of roughly 6%-7% versus smaller miners’ borrowing costs of about 9%-12%. Private equity is increasingly originating and then reselling these interests, and Franco-Nevada’s $1.05 billion purchase of the Côté Gold royalty is cited as evidence of deep demand for long-dated production exposure.