Wheaton Precious Metals (TSX:WPM) — Corporate Update

0:00 Good morning, and welcome to the WHEATON PRECIOUS METALS CORP. UPDATE UPDATE PRECIOUS METALS CORP. Company The may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. Have the company review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Randy Smallwood, President and Chief Executive Officer of WHEATON PRECIOUS METALS. Good morning.

0:30 Good morning. And thank you, Paul, for the introduction, and thank you everyone for dialing in to listen to to our story about WHEATON PRECIOUS METALS. My name is Randy Smallwood, as as said, president and chief executive officer of the, of the company. I've been with the company since we founded it back in 2004, and, and I'm really, quite pleased with, what we've been able to build, but we've still got so much more to do. There will be, some forward looking statements in this presentation that urge everyone to understand the risks associated with those forward looking statements. They are detailed, some of the details are here on the screen, and there's more details available on, of course, our website. So who is WHEATON PRECIOUS METALS? You know, when we started this company back in 2004, we, we came up with a unique business model based on streaming.

1:21 And, and we can use that that streaming business model to to deliver good, strong value to all of our stakeholders and ultimately wind up being the world's best way to invest into precious metals, the premier precious metals investment, method. And And I mentioned our stakeholders. Our stakeholders, of course, are our shareholders. They're the ones that, that that pay my salary and pay our team's salary in terms of going forward. But, they're not the only stakeholders that we work for. We, in the streaming business, we also work for our partners, the companies that actually operate the mines where we get our metal from. It's also a very, very important stakeholder in their business, and, without them, we wouldn't be have any success. But the third stakeholder and and ever as important as as the others is, of course, our neighbors, the communities that we operate in, and and the the ones that give us social license to be successful and our partner's social license to be successful. So we are a company that is built around making sure that that we deliver success and good sustainable progress to all of our stakeholders.

2:28 The streaming model is is unique. We we don't actually operate mines. What we do is supply capital to mining companies. And for that capital, for a portion of that capital, what we call the upfront payment, we get a portion of the metal that's produced at these mine sites. And when that metal is delivered to us, we make stay we make a fixed production payment on a per ounce basis and go on a go forward basis. These agreements are usually life of mine, and they cover all of the, all of the exploration and all the expansion potential. So if the mine grows or has exploration success, we still get the benefits of that expansion. And so really what that comes down to is the this what I call the streaming advantage as highlighted on this slide here, where where what we deliver to our our shareholders and our stakeholders is high quality access to high quality assets.

3:19 The 85% of our current production comes from assets that are in the bottom half of the respective cost curve. Exploration and expansion upside, as I mentioned, the the the life of mine and the and the percentage production means that we get that expansion potential and we get exploration success wrapped into us. Very, very predictable costs, and this is one of the huge advantages of a streaming company over a traditional mining company from a from from an investment perspective is that our capital costs are fixed and defined by the contract, and our operating costs are also fixed and defined by the contract. And so there's no surprises, no cost surprises, a a huge difference between us and mining companies. Of course, with that operating cost, that that our production payment that we make on a per ounce basis, that does give us some commodity price leverage. And so that's one of the advantages that we supply over top of owning just straight bullion or, or investing into gold ETFs and such.

4:15 We do actually supply some leverage and some growth over over both of those other options. The company's got an innovative dividend policy where 30% of our cash is returned to our shareholders. We use that as a base reference through the course of the year, we won't see any drops with with quarterly volatility. And and this is something that that I see as as our projects continue to grow and and and we continue to grow our company, that 30% will climb. And, of course, optionality. We do have a number of assets in our portfolio that are still waiting for permits and still waiting for the the go ahead. And so even over and above our current very impressive production profile, we have a number of assets that that provide additional optionality over and above that. So all of these together add into a very sustainable foundation, which is really, you know, focus of what we're building here, good long term value.

5:12 We have been busy during the pandemic. As you can see here, this is the the list of transactions, nine streams on eight different assets, over 1,500,000,000 committed in deals over the last in a year and a half, little bit, maybe a little bit more than a year and a half now. And you could see that overall, those streams, most of them are development projects, but they will add over a 150,000 ounces of gold equivalent production per year as they all come online over the next three to four years. So a very, you know, a very nice add on to our already strong growth profile within the company. It makes us even stronger. We are leaders in the ESG space. This is something that's been a long commitment of of our company. It really comes from my own background. I'm a geological engineer that has worked in the mining industry, and I understand many, many decades ago. I understood how important strong social license is. And so so we, as a streaming company, even though we don't operate these mines, we we endeavor to work with site management to do our best to strengthen their own capacity to to to maintain strong social and environmental license with respect to their operations.

6:23 We do a lot of co funding programs and and and additional work. We have this overlying mantra that our partners when our partners are strong, so are we. And so all of that has been recognized in terms of the success that we've had in in in trying that. We are definitely one of the top top citizens. We've we've been named top precious metals company and by Sustainalytics and top ranked by MSCI and such. And so a good strong recognition there. Of course, our dividend has has has been healthy and has seen growth over the last couple of years, last year and a half, and so we've got good strong dividend growth in that side. And we've had a couple of other sales where we've sat there and optimized our own portfolio and and closed off the Hill stream and the LA Yaku stream for very good prices that that we will then turn and and take and invest into new projects as we continue to grow our company.

7:21 The portfolio is is is made up of 21 different operating mines and 13 development projects. As you can see here, there is a very strong America's focus, on the asset mix. This really comes from our roots. We started off being focused only on silver, but, back about ten years ago, we decided to to venture into the entire precious metal spectrum, mainly focusing on gold. And, and we are now generating more revenue from gold than, than silver and and, with a little bit of revenue coming from palladium and from platinum and from cobalt. You you can see political risk is something that's very, very important to us. And, if you look at these, jurisdictions, it is something that that does, resonate in terms of how our portfolio is distributed around the world.

8:08 And you can also see the strength of the streaming model and the fact that that our partners the partner list that we see down the, down the right side of this slide really highlights the fact that the streaming business model works for the entire mining industry. The senior diversified big companies like Vale and Glencore, the senior gold companies like Newmont and Barrick, all have have have stepped into streaming as a source of capital. And, of course, now we're seeing a lot of smaller companies and single asset development companies that are joining joining the the the parade towards effective capital to help build mines successfully and and minimize the risks to their own shareholders. So so, you know, a good strong track record in terms of of what we've been able to accomplish and and and and really, really focused on on on political risk is is one of the attributes that we really put a lot of value in in terms of our own due diligence process.

9:10 I think if there's a slide that separates us from our peers now we we did create the streaming model back in 2004, but the success that we we had very early on brought out a lot of common copycats. The traditional royalty companies quickly became streaming companies, and and they have now stepped into this space. But we have maintained a very diligent focus on on quality, and I think if there's one slide that differentiates us from our peers, from those traditional royalty companies, it is this slide. It's, you know, the quality of the assets. So we judge quality by the operating margins of the partner, not so much ourselves. Our margins are defined by the contract. It's the operating margins of our partner. And 85% of our production comes from the bottom half of the respective cost curve. So that's to say that if we're getting gold from a copper mine, that copper mine will be in the bottom half of that respective cost curve, and and that's what we focus on. But I think the other attribute that makes our company unique within the space is our reserve and resource base. We have close to thirty years of reserves in front of us, over ten years of measured and indicated resources, which is a higher confidence resource, and then another close to twenty years of inferred resources. A little bit lower confidence, but nevertheless still resources.

10:33 This is unheard of in the precious metal space. We have high quality, long life assets in our portfolio, and it's really highlighted on this slide.

10:45 Our production profile, we, we unfortunately did have to go through a a reduction or a guidance earlier, at the end of our second quarter earlier this year. It is unfortunate. Salobo has had some challenges down in Brazil, but it looks like they have turned the corner. So I do think that it has created an opportunity in terms of investing into our company because as Salobo climbs its way back up, we've had a stream at Slowbro since 2013, and that asset has outperformed every year until the last year and a half, two years, and we're confident that Vale will be able to bring it back up to being an outperformer over the next few quarters. And so our current guidance for this year is is now centered around 660,000 gold equivalent ounces between six forty and six eighty. So centered at 660,000 gold equivalent ounces.

11:31 But we see growth our average over the next ten years will be 850,000 ounces, which for that average to work, we will within five years see production up over 900,000 ounces per year. That's that's 35% plus of growth organically within our current portfolio, not counting any of the new opportunities that we're seeing. And the pipeline is very strong. We are seeing lots of new opportunities to continue growing our company as streaming becomes an even more competitive source of capital in this current mining environment. As you can see, a real strong focus on gold, and I will will say that even the pipeline that we have has has even a heavier focus on gold. So so I do predict that gold will become even more and more important to our company as as we continue to grow. But we do have a little bit of cobalt and and a little bit of palladium from from Stillwater, and we will be getting a little bit of platinum from the Marathon project once it gets up and running. And so good strong growth, good quality assets all the way through. And, of course, don't forget the optionality on the other side. A number of assets that still aren't are still waiting for permits to move forward before they start delivering metal to us.

12:45 If there's a slide that's defines the strength of the, of the streaming model, I think, you know, especially compared to the mining industry, I think this slide probably does the best. Our costs are fixed. Are defined by the contracts. There are slight inflation kickers. They're actually not even inflation. It's just a fixed kicker of 1% in most of our fixed price contracts. A lot of our newer contracts now have fixed margins where we pay between 1822% of the spot price for every ounce that gets delivered to us. And so either way, there's no cost surprises. You know exactly where the price is going to be, which gives us the capacity to make a forecast for the next five years. Our gold will cost us around $444 per ounce. Our silver will cost us around $5.25 per ounce. You can see the margins that that delivers, and that's margins with high confidence to our shareholders.

13:40 Our balance sheet is strong. We've got a $2,000,000,000 revolving credit facility, a revolver that that we have used successfully in the past to minimize dilution to our existing shareholders. We were as far drawn as $1,500,000,000 into that revolver at the at the peak of of of our growth cycle. But our cash flows have really ramped up over the last couple of years to the point to where we now chewed away that debt, and we've now got, as as of the end of second quarter, in excess of 400,000,000, and then you can imagine in excess of 500,000,000 now of cash on hand. So immediate capacity of of close to $2,500,000,000 right now. That doesn't count a $300,000,000 ATM that we have over and above, which we have never exercised a share into and and likely won't, mainly because we don't like diluting our existing shareholders. That is who we work for. But all of that adds up to a lot of capacity to continue growing our company on a go forward basis. And I will tell you that we are extremely busy on that front, probably the highest number of opportunities we've ever seen in terms of reviewing and potentially supporting with, with capital commitments to help grow our company on a go forward basis.

14:52 As you can see, the amount of cash flow that we generate over the next five years, our average operating cash flow per year is about $1,000,000,000. And, of course, the other highlight I would say is that, again, the leverage that we see here, if commodity prices go up 50%, our cash flows go up 65%. Again, that's that even though we have high margins, we still do supply leverage on on the commodity price itself. So a good strong balance sheet. This kinda highlights our company history in terms of how we've grown in terms of production and cash flows on a go forward basis. And, as you can see, the last time there was a bull running commodity prices, we wound up, generating in excess of $2,000,000,000 of of excess cash flow over and above what we were forecasting from our from our own internal cash flows.

15:46 It sure looks like we're shaping up for something very similar and and and of import of importance to highlight here is the fact that we are now producing more than twice the metal that we were back in the 2010, 2011 era when we were saw the last bump. And so the capacity to deliver excess cash flow over and above whenever we see precious metal prices move is very strong in our company.

16:14 Our dividend, as I mentioned earlier on, it is tied to being 30% of our operating cash flows. We we when we originally started the dividend many years ago, close to ten years ago, we started at 20%. We'll gradually move this up over time. It it's tough to maintain the same growth profile in this industry as our company gets bigger and bigger. So as our company does grow, more and more of the cash will shift towards paying a stronger and stronger dividend. And that'll be driven by increasing the 30% to 40%, 50%, etcetera.

16:47 So why do partner mining companies wanna do streams? In today's environment? Why would companies wanna sell off a portion of their own production to us to push that forward? Well, the list is long. Streaming is a very, very competitive source of capital. As you can see, it it works very well compared to debt, and it works very well compared to equity. There's probably two key points that should be strong enough to to justify an operating company using a stream to help finance. And that's really the second and third point on this on this on this list here, which are really highlighted on this slide right now. The top half of this slide talks about the arbitrage and value. Our business really is focused on trying to acquire noncore byproduct production.

17:34 I'm not sure if you're aware, but every copper mine in the world produces a little bit of gold. Every lead zinc mine in the world produces a little bit of silver. Every nickel mine in the world produces a little bit of gold. And so our company is really focused on trying to unlock that noncore byproduct precious metals that's really being produced at the copper, the lead zinc, and the nickel mines around the world and unlocking that and bringing that to our shareholders in a go forward basis. Now precious metal companies and especially precious metal streaming companies trade at much higher valuations than base metal companies. And so there's an arbitrage in how those ounces are valued. They're valued much less in the base metal company than they are in our company. So we basically run a good strong arbitrage or we we share that arbitrage with the operator, which makes the acquisition of that much more attractive than if they were to issue shares and dilute their existing shareholder base.

18:28 Makes it very, very attractive. That arbitrage is probably no stronger now than it's ever been with respect to especially with single asset junior companies in the mining space. Mining stocks, as we know, haven't been well supported by investors of late, And so those companies are trading at very low PNAV multiples, price to net net asset value multiples. The bottom half of this slide talks about how we can improve the internal rate of return or or, in other words, the return on invested capital for a project as a company builds a project. And the example that we use here is from the Salobo Mine, our most important asset. It's owned and operated by Vale down in Brazil, one of the world's best copper gold mines in the world. And, you know, altogether, Vale spent close to $4,000,000,000 building the first two phases of this project.

19:16 We supplied $3,100,000,000 out of that 4,000,000,000. So we supplied 78% of the capital to build that, yet we only took away about 23% of the revenue with our stream. We get 75% of whatever gold is ever going to be produced at this mine on a go forward basis.

19:33 Incredibly attractive for the Vale shareholders. They they put in very, very little capital to build this mine, and yet they get the bulk of the revenue for this mine on a go forward basis. This is an excellent example of how to dramatically amplify the return on your invested capital or your IRRs on these projects. So it makes it very, very attractive for companies to to use a stream as part of this as part of the financing package in building new mines. And it'll take a good mine and make it a great mine. So benefits to the community, are are are one of our other important stakeholders in the company itself. We, as I mentioned, sustainability is a real key part of our of our DNA. It's something that that I understand from good business practices in many years in the mining industry, and for that matter, common sense, really.

20:27 But at at Wheaton, it's really sort of represented in four different areas. You know, of course, the the due diligence side, we've got good strong social scientists that are always looking for and measuring risk in terms of whether we should invest into projects, but we also monitor our existing projects to see if there's ways we can help them move forward. One of the advantages that Wheaton has is that our technical team see many, many projects. So we do get a good sense of what best practices are. And and we are part of a broader industry, a mining industry, so we do our best to make sure that all of our partners understand what those best practices are and can move forward. So so due diligence is important. Community investment programs. We we were the first in the streaming and royalty space to actually start investing back into communities around the mine sites where we get our metal from, an an incredibly important aspect of of long term business success.

21:21 And I'm happy to report that the royalty companies, the traditional royalty companies, are now following suit and starting to do this because, overall, it'll make the entire industry that much more acceptable by by society. Good strong policies and practices within the company. This is something that is part of our DNA. It's something that we really, really do put a lot of focus on. And, of course, good strong external and voluntary commitments both on a corporate basis, but also a personal basis. You know, one of the measures that we have is what do our staff, what does our team do on their own personal time with respect to contributing back to the community around them. And so it is something that's that is, as I said, a strong part of our DNA. On the community investment program, we have really four pillars that we focus on, health, education, environment, and then, of course, community itself.

22:10 It's we've we've commit to a minimum of 1.5% of our average income goes back into this with the bulk of that going towards the communities around the mines where we get our metal from. And and we do this in by working in partnership with the operators. It doesn't make sense for us to actually run the programs in the area. We're not operating these mines. But what does make sense is that we

22:32 expand the capacity of the site management to make sure that they deliver good things and sustainable benefits to the communities around those mines. So lots of success on this front. And I think, you know, the results sort of speak for themselves. We're top rated precious metals company. What I'm particularly proud of is we actually made the list of the global top 50 from Sustainalytics, which which is a a multi sector list of companies. That doesn't that's not just the mining or the resource industry. That includes tourism, includes banking, includes all sorts of services, software, technology. We made the global top 50, and we're a resource based company that that works in the mining space. This really sort of the recognition in terms of how we've pushed this forward and made this important.

23:20 You know, proud of what we've been able to accomplish here. But our journey is not finished. We have just recently committed earlier this year to being net zero by 2050, and that includes the emissions that our partners produce as our as as a portion of our share of the production from these mine sites. So we've we've got some some some challenges, some exciting challenges in front of us in terms of how do we help our partners get closer and closer to net zero so that our share of the emissions from these mine sites will will reduce over time. And so so this is something that's very, very important

23:57 to us. And as you can see, you've you know, I've said it several times. This is this is a journey that we are on of constant improvement. I I think society as a whole is is going down this path, and and and we're doing our part to make sure that we lead the mining industry, at least the mining streaming industry, also down this path. So why invest into wheat and precious metals? I don't know. The list is long. If you're going to invest into precious metals, you really have three different options. You can either invest into the mining companies, or you can go and buy bullion or the e the gold ETFs, or or you can invest into the streaming space. Now with respect to precious metal miners, of course, the cost risk itself should be enough to scare everyone away from that space. It is a very, very high levered costs are higher than where we are, and so that higher leverage, unfortunately, gives you a lot more risk and exposure.

24:55 If you're if you're right on the on the call, you might do better on that front, but it is definitely a much riskier environment to invest into. At the other end of the spectrum is bullion and ETFs where there is no growth, there is no risk. There is no cost risk, but there's also no growth. There's no expansion. There's no expiration success. An ounce stays an ounce all the way through. And in fact, it shrinks when you when you factor in your service fees for for storing that gold or or holding that ETF. So in the streaming space, when you sit and look at it, you know, the the benefits that we provide, no cost risk, and we still deliver all the growth. The streaming space is the best way to invest into precious metals. And amongst the streaming companies, Wheaton is by far the purest of the bunch.

25:43 We have greater than 95% of revenue. In fact, right now, it's about 98% of our revenue comes from precious metals. We've got a little bit of cobalt coming from the Voisey's Bay mine in Canada, which I will highlight is the cleanest, greenest,

25:55 most socially responsible, most environmentally sound cobalt produced in the world. But the rest of our revenue does come from precious metals. When you look at the other streamers, especially the senior ones, you can see that a large portion of the revenue actually comes from oil and gas or from iron ore or from copper. You know, we are focused on precious metals as the name implies. And I would argue that we also have the highest quality portfolio with 85% of our production from the bottom half of the respective cost curves and the longest reserve and resource life with close to sixty years combined reserves and resources altogether. So I really do think that WHEATON stands out on this list. As you can see here, we talked about the split in revenue. As I mentioned, we've only got a small portion of our revenue coming from cobalt. And and the way cobalt prices are going, who knows, maybe it will be a precious metal sometime soon.

26:49 So our track record, what we've accomplished, I'm pleased very pleased to to announce that, earlier this year, we surpassed over $10,000,000,000 committed into, streams, since we created this company in two in two thousand and four. So so a very successful, track record in terms of doing that. What what I find amazing is that we've invested $10,000,000,000. We've already recovered back about $8,800,000,000 of cash flow from our mines to date. And when you combine that with the with the extensive reserves and resources that we have in front of us, it just underscores the strength of our business model. We've already delivered over $1,700,000,000 back to our shareholders in the form of dividends. And and with our strong annual cash flows and growing production profile, we're going to see those dividends climb, especially with current prices, you know, especially when you look at that at current commodity prices.

27:44 If we see prices continue to to strengthen over time here, that's just gonna even compound the the strength there. So good strong commitment towards sustainability, helping helping the entire industry move forward. Very, very important to us. All of this has added up to around a 20% average annualized after tax return from our portfolio. So we have delivered good, strong, value to our shareholders. In fact, if you look at our returns compared to other ways of investing into the mining space, you can see that we have delivered consistently. We have outperformed the entire space. WHEATON is the best way to invest into precious metals. So this is my last slide, and then we'll start working our way through some of the questions. I see a few here.

28:35 If you like precious metals, we do check the boxes. Cost predictable, good expiration and expansion potential, a very high quality asset base, a long life operations, good reserve base, very, very unique standalone within the within the precious metal space, leverage to increasing precious metal prices, very strong commitment towards sustainability, and, of course, a good strong dividend. All of that adds up to an excellent way to invest in the precious metals. So with that, I think we're gonna shift to answering some questions. I do have some questions that have come up on the screen. So Great. Randy, perhaps if we could, we did have some pre submitted questions that which we can just take before we move on to those that we've got through today's meeting.

29:24 If I may, I'll just read out the first one. Of course, ladies and gentlemen, do please continue to submit your questions just using that Q and A tab on the top right hand corner of your screen. But the first one, if I may, Randy, reads as follows. When is your next quarterly dividend?

29:40 Quarterly dividend? Quarterly dividend will be announced at the at the end of our quarterly results, which is q three November 3, early November. So the dividend will be paid shortly after that. And so it'll be sometime in November. That's fantastic. Thank you very much indeed. Next question we've got here is what is the environment like for MNA, and what kind of companies are you looking for streaming deals at present? It's a it's a unique opportunity set right now, but as busy as we've ever seen it. I did mention that earlier on in the presentation. The what's unique about the space right now is that commodity prices in general are actually relatively good. The the the industry is generating decent internal cash flows if they have operations. And so just about our entire opportunity set right now is made up of single asset development companies. These are companies that don't have access to operating cash flow, but they wanna build mines. And so I I can tell you we just went through the two big conferences in the gold space, the Denver Gold Show and the Beaver Creek Precious Metals Summit. We had over 60 meetings with companies that are looking for capital to help build their minds on a go forward basis.

30:59 Now a lot of those assets weren't assets that we're gonna be all that interested in. The quality just isn't there. But I can tell you that we currently have over 20 assets that we're looking at at various stages of of data review and and confident that we'll be able to convert some of those into additional streams and continue growing. I mean, it's my personal objective to get our company up over a over a million gold equivalent ounces a year of production, and we're not far off of that right now, but we do fully expect to be able to add a bit more. It is a very right market from that perspective. Those single

31:31 asset development companies, most of them are trading at at pretty pretty significant discounts to their net asset value, sometimes in the area of point three. When I when I sit and think about what is when I sit and think about what is sorry. I'm getting red squares flashing up here. Yeah. Yeah. When I sit and think about yep. Okay. When I when I when I sit and think about what's actually, you know, the path forward, it's going to be selecting our way through these projects and helping these companies when it comes to selling off a noncore portion of their project on a go forward basis at a at a at a value that's closer to the net asset value of that asset, then it makes all in Internet sense for these companies to use a stream as part of that financing package. And I think CFOs from around the world are definitely seeing that that opportunity set.

32:26 So very busy on that front. That's fantastic. Thank you, Randy. Next question we've got here. Again, along the similar theme, you know, what sort of deal capacity do you have in terms of dollars to invest now or in a short space of time? Well, as I mentioned, we've got a $2,000,000,000 revolver that we've used very successfully to really minimize the dilution. I think if we'd have taken the same approach that our peers did, we would have had somewhere around 15 to 20% more shares issued and outstanding than we currently do right now. So so that revolver has been very useful, and at its peak, we were probably down around about a 1.3, 1.4% interest rate, which made it very, very cheap capital for us. However, right now, we're generating such strong cash flows. I'm not sure when we'll get down into that revolver. We've got you know, at the end of the second quarter so you can imagine, but at end of the second quarter, we're well over $400,000,000 cash on hand and generating close to a billion dollars in free cash flow per year, and that's only gonna grow with a 3035% growth profile over the next four to five years.

33:28 You know, that that cash flow is just gonna continue to grow. So if people often ask, what I what do I lay asleep at night or lay awake at night thinking about while I'm trying to sleep in terms of what problems to solve? It's how to effectively put this cash to work. And if I can't put it in the ground, ultimately, it will be returned to shareholders. But we do have a lot of capacity. I do see the dividend itself ultimately climbing because I just don't think we're gonna be able to invest this capital as fast as it's coming in. Fantastic. Thank you. Indeed. Next question we have got here is what's your view on the gold and silver price? Well, I think it should be higher. I think if you look around the world right now, you know, the the the space that we see in terms of, you know, the the world, the the condition of the world, the strength of the US dollar is concerning, and that's one of the reasons that you look at gold prices. Of course, if we look at it in US dollars, it doesn't look all that strong. Although, I will say it has stood up very well against the strength of the US dollar. Just how sustainable is that, though? We all have to ask ourselves, how sustainable is the US dollar being as strong as it is right now?

34:39 And then when I consider what the alternatives are, I really do think that gold's time in the sun is is yet to come. And and it will become a, you know, a good, strong, competitive investment vehicle to provide some stability and and continue as it as it's done for thousands of years. A good store of value in the face of all the volatility that we're going to see in fiat currencies around the world. Silver itself, I'm you know, and and I am chair of the World Gold Council right now, so I'm not sure I'm supposed to say this, but I actually like silver better. Silver has some good strong fundamentals behind it, mainly the increasing demand. Most people don't realize that silver conducts electricity better than any other metal in the world.

35:24 That's one of the reasons why you see so much silver being used in solar panels and and high efficiency electronics is because every every piece of silver that's used, every molecule of silver that's used means that the electricity that has been generated, either your batteries will last longer or you have greater processing power. That's really what it comes down to. Silver has increasing demand. They've also got very, very strong antibacterial qualities. So so water purification systems and antibacterial applications and, you know, especially with the world coming off the pandemic. Just the the fundamentals behind silver are incredibly strong, even more so than gold. What silver is missing right now is is the retail investor demand. But when that returns, I do think silver will have and and silver has traditionally always outperformed gold, unfortunately, in both directions. It's got higher volatility, higher beta than gold does. And so gold the gold market is much more much larger, much more stable. And and I think in the face of the world, we're going see strength in gold, but I do think that silver is positioned to even outperform gold through this period.

36:30 Fantastic. Thank you very much indeed, Randy. That does conclude the pre submitted questions. If I may just ask you click on that Q and A tab, just where appropriate to do so, if you could just read out the question and give your response, and I'll pick up from you at the end. Sure. First question, I'm going to read the question right out. And it says, with the new streams coming online, how much visibility do you have over future revenues, and how much of the pricing is fixed? Well, the the pricing itself is just our costs that are fixed. The pricing itself, I mean, in future revenues, really, the biggest factor that impacts that is what is the commodity price on a go forward basis. And and we get full exposure to that. In fact, we get amplified exposure to that because of our base leverage on the bottom end of that. So our costs are all fixed. The when we sign into a new streaming contract, we define how much capital we're going to contribute, and we we define how much of the of the you know, how much what the operating cost, what the production payment will be on a per ounce basis on a go forward as those ounces are delivered. I will say new streaming contracts. The one change that we have seen over the close to twenty years is streaming contracts have been around. The new streaming contracts focus more on a fixed margin basis than a fixed price.

37:45 And so as I as I mentioned earlier on, most of our operating payments are between 1822% of the spot price per ounce when it gets delivered to us. That's not a fixed price, but what that is is a fixed margin for us. That means we're generating around 80% operating profits, operating margins on these profit margins on these ounces as they're being produced. And so so they are all defined. With these new streams that we have coming online, it's all defined in those contracts. It's all part of the negotiation. And, you know, there's always bit a of risk with respect to how much metal gets produced, but I will say that our our our focus has been you know, we we have a reputation for being being very, very diligent on a technical basis.

38:32 I'll tell you, our company has 39 employees in it, and and the bulk of those employees, the largest segment of the employee of the entire employee base is technical. It's geologists and engineers and metallurgists and and for that, then social scientists that all define and and study these projects to get comfort in terms of how they'll perform. So so, you know, we we I think we do have very good visibility in terms of how these assets will produce. Second question that I see here, how much of your capital is committed to future deals? And are you seeing more opportunity in the current market, and how do you source new streams over the competition? How do we compete against competition? So how much of our capital is committed? You know, as as as one of the early slides highlighted, we've invested about 1,500,000,000 or committed to 1,500,000,000 over the last year and a half. We do have some other commitments that predate the last year and a half, but some of that 1,500,000,000 has already been paid. And so current commitments over the next probably four to five years will be somewhere somewhere between 1.5 to $2,000,000,000 that we'll have to fund as construction progresses on these mind mines.

39:40 So keep in mind that as these mines are built, we don't just pay all the money up front. We actually feed that money to them on on regular payment periods over the construction process as as the mine itself gets constructed. So that's a a huge a huge, you know, benefit in terms of the the the risk profile. You're not putting all the money out and then waiting, hopefully, for it to move forward. You're actually part of the construction process as the mine moves forward. And are you seeing more opportunity in the current market? Yes. We are. Again, I as I mentioned, but just to reinforce, single asset development companies are trading at substantive discounts to the net asset value. And so for them to issue equity to finance their their growth going forward, very, very expensive to their existing shareholders, the dilution that their existing shareholders suffer from. So a stream is incredibly attractive.

40:35 On top of that, with a company like WHEATON, we have a very, very strong reputation for technical, thorough due diligence and also strong ESG or sustainability commitments on that front. And so so we do pride ourselves on a bit of a Wheaton stamp of approval that that also makes it attractive for companies, especially single asset companies, to gain credibility within the marketplace, to know that a second set of eyes, especially Wheaton's eyes, have looked at these projects and has signed off on on the quality these projects on a go forward basis. And so so it is it is important. And in fact, that sort of answers the the last part of that question, which was how do you source new streams over the competition? You know, we always focus on making sure that any acquisition we make is accretive. And so we're not gonna win every bid because every once in a while, some of our peers do pay way too much for opportunities, and we'll let them do that. That's that's that's for them to do and not for us.

41:31 We're much more responsible with our shareholders' capital. But how do we win? We focus on the partnership. We focus on supplying support to our partners. As as I've mentioned many times here, the ESG side, where we were the first of the companies, and we have by far the strongest program in terms of helping our partners be more successful in being maintaining strong social license in the communities around that. But we also have a technical ambassador program. We have a number of different initiatives. Our most recent initiative, which is the commitment towards net zero by 2050 and setting aside a a carbon, It's basically a climate response fund, a separate fund that's going to help our partners make better decisions to try and help them get to net zero. And when they get to net zero, of course, we ride that benefit. And so so, you know, it's it's constantly it's not forgetting that this is a partnership and working continuously to try and ensure that our partners are more successful.

42:27 It's not just about the upfront payment. It's about what can we do to help our partners be more successful. And, ultimately, that delivers return customers, repeat customers. And I will say that out of the last nine transactions that we've done, five of those are repeat customers. They're people that have come back because they've worked with WHEATON in the past, and they enjoyed the experience. They thought it was positive on all fronts. And it's not going to it's not gonna you know, if if if one of our competitors wants to overpay for an asset, it's not gonna you know, it's it's gonna be challenging for us to actually compete against that. But when we have bids that are close, we will win in the event of those ties, and we've seen that happen already. So the last question that I see here, unless there's some more, Paul, but I will read it out. Great performance. What catalyst do you see increasing the share price in the near term post the recent sell off? Well, you know, as I mentioned, we did have some production challenges at Salobo, which is our key asset down in Brazil. It does Vale is very committed in terms of turning that around. And in fact, we've now seen four consecutive monthly reports with continuous improvement.

43:36 You know, it's I think that asset was probably impacted a bit more by COVID and by the restrictions of travel that they had in Brazil to try and minimize the risk of of the pandemic than than we expected. But I will say I do hope we never get to the point of having to do virtual mind tours again because, you know, it's been tough for us to sort of stay on top of how our mines are operating without being able to physically visit them, and we have recommenced. I think in June of this year, we got down to Salobo, and and, like, our operations team is busy visiting all of our assets. We we make a point of visiting every asset at least once a year to try and get comfort with with their forecasts and and and how things are going. And there's nothing that makes up for being there in person. You get a real feel for how these operations move. And so so I can tell you that, you know, during the last visit down at Salobo in June, they did see a lot of benefits or a lot of improvements there, and and we do fully expect Salobo to become once again an outperforming asset within our portfolio. And I do think that as that happens, we will see our our share price rebound.

44:39 I think silver. We we definitely have a lot of silver exposure. About 40% of our revenue comes from silver. And so if we saw silver prices move to where I think they belong, which when you sit and look at all the fundamentals, it definitely belongs at a higher price than where it is right now. I also think that's going to position our company very well and and and have a good immediate response to that. So so we're we're very bullish in terms of precious metals. When we look at what's going on around the world right now, we do think that that gold is gonna play a serious role in terms of battling inflation and and working, you know, working in support on that side. And I think that Wheaton is an excellent way for investors to step into this space. Randy, thank you very much. You you have covered off all the questions that we've had through. And, of course, any further questions that come through, the company will be able to review those. We'll be able to publish responses where appropriate to do so. Randy, perhaps before redirecting investors to provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important, Jack, I'll ask you for a few closing comments, please.

45:40 Sure. I think I've covered off most, but I'm going to reinforce a few things. And one of the things I didn't mention is the lack of inflation risk that our our business model has. Again, with the costs being controlled and especially when we when we talk to our partners and the rest of the mining industry is and I mentioned earlier on, I'm chair of the World Gold Council, so I spend a lot of time talking to the gold miners of the world. And and the mining industry is suffering from some pretty heavy inflationary pressures. Our company is set up to to you know, our cost to gain are fixed and defined, so we don't have any inflationary pressures in our company. And so so I I I just think that when I look around the world and see what's happening and and the strength of the US dollar relative to every other fiat currency around the world, I don't think is long term sustainable.

46:28 And and I think gold is positioning itself very well to be a very credible well, it's it's always been a credible alternative. For thousands of years, it's been that alternative, but, yeah, it play an even more important role in in providing a means to not only store value, but to grow value. And and and it's just it's I I it's all lining up to be very promising couple of years for the precious metals industry. And so I I think everyone should have at least five to 10% of their portfolios exposed to precious metals, you know, primarily gold. But silver, I do think, is is very worthy of of having some exposure in that space. And and I really do believe it's been our our mission at WHEATON is to provide the best way of getting that exposure and delivering that exposure to our shareholders.

47:25 We are focused on growing our company. We are now listed on the London Stock Exchange. It's been a couple of years now since we listed over here. And so this is this is an important market for us, and we do think that that what we provide for European, for UK, and European based investors is something that hasn't been readily available in times past. And I urge everyone to fully understand the benefits of our business model, and, hopefully, you can come along for the ride. That sounds good. Riley, thank you very much indeed for updating investors today. Can you please ask investors not to close the session? It should be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that Randy and the team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete and I know it's greatly valued by the company. On behalf of Randy, Witten Precious Metals Corp would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That concludes today's session and good morning to you all. Thank you.