Sandeep Singh
Analyst · Eight Capital
Thanks very much, Fred. Look, hopefully, what you take away from that and the reason I think we could go through that summary as quickly as we have is, it was a very simple, straightforward and positive quarter. And frankly, there's a lot of upside from our current base, which I'll talk about in the remainder of this presentation, but the existing asset base really outperforming and doing well almost without exception. So we expect that to continue. If you look at Slide 10 and you think about that portfolio for a minute, I suspect most of you know and understand the quality of that portfolio that's been constructed within OR. It provides, in our view, a very compelling value proposition at any point in time, but frankly, going forward, even more so. When you look at the gold and silver mix, which is what we are, we are a precious metal company, predominantly providing gold and silver exposure, the highest in our peer group. When you think about the jurisdictions where we live and breathe, that's always cause for positivity, I guess. But even more so, I think we're starting to see the importance of that jurisdictional profile play out. I think we're seeing risks rising in second and third tier countries that are stressed and increasingly stressed by COVID and perhaps reacting poorly as a result. So this is something that gives us an immense amount of comfort, should give investors an immense amount of comfort going forward as well. Importantly, as we show you later on, our growth, not only our production, but our growth is also in Tier 1 countries. And we're also partnered with some fantastic operators, and we're partnered with them on low-cost mines. We don't really have any tethering production that we worry about from a quarter-to-quarter basis. And that's also important as we're starting to see signs -- I think it's clear of inflation, and we're starting to see signs of cost creep in the mining sector. Again, it's not something we lose any sleep over. So solid across the board. If you add to this -- not shown on the page, but if you add to this, the long mine life of our core assets, you're essentially looking at steady ongoing production and then growing production with new assets coming along. Nothing really falling off the table. And add to that, lots of drilling momentum on our producing assets and our development assets. So a good news story across the board. Starting with on Slide 11, a flagship asset that just keeps getting better. Obviously, the Canadian Malartic open pit continues to deliver a very steady and significant amount of free gold to us. It will until later part of this decade. It was already on an open pit basis, the most valuable gold royalty in the entire sector. It's only doubled, if not more so, in value when the underground decision was made. And I'll talk about that on Slide 12, if you skip ahead. Again, none of this will be a surprise to folks that in February, Agnico and Yamana made the $1.3 billion go ahead investment decision on the underground, extending our mine life from initially 2028 from the open pit to at least 2039. That underground deposit currently contains 14.5 million ounces, only half of which are in that mine plan out to 2039. So we fully expect that as they get underground, as they ramp into Odyssey, as they sink the shaft into East Gouldie and can infill from underground, more of those ounces in the mine plan will find their way -- sorry, more of those ounces will find their way into mine plan over time. In addition, you've heard the operators talk about how the deposit, especially East Gouldie, which is the highest grade portion of it, is open, significantly open in most directions. And we've seen a very interesting step out hole, kind of 1,000 meters step out hole, where they intersected. You see the star here on the bottom of Page 12, 2.5 grams over 10, 11 meters. Importantly, hitting it within meters of where they expected it to. It's still on our 5% ground. Lots of room to grow that East Gouldie resource in between, obviously, will be dependent on exploration success. But we've seen to date how quickly ounces can add up at East Gouldie with relatively little drilling given the continuity and the predictability of the deposit. So this is just a fantastic flagship for us. And it continues to give the -- I think this is not our commentary, although we share it. But if you hear the operators in recent discussions, describing it as early days in terms of resource delineation, there's a lot more to come, we expect. The added potential benefit down the road, as they spend more time on this asset, may also not just be mine life extension from that added resource expansion, but there's also conceptual for the time being, but conceptual -- commentary about second decline, about multiple shafts in time. Obviously, there's a mill that will be ready, willing and able to accept more OR. So all this is just a fantastic catalyst for us. Importantly, one that happens in a down market. All this came out when money was flowing out of the gold sector, we started to see that turn around. We don't think it's properly valued within our stock, and we think there's a lot of room for us to benefit from the work that's going to be going on there going forward for not just this year but for years. On Slide 13, just a couple of quick other updates. We're one quarter closer on the Mantos expansion. They're currently on time for the end of the year, now 79% complete. So that's, again, a positive new story for us into next year. A reminder for the first 5 years of that expansion, we'd be expecting 1.2 million ounces of silver a year. So it's a significant asset for us that we see just around the corner, or at least that expansion just around the corner. In the meantime, continues to be a very steady out-performer for us. Eagle is another one worth mentioning a little bit, at least. With the commercial production last year, it's still very much in the ramp-up phase. I think one of the reasons I mentioned our quarter -- or first quarter bodes well for the year is many of you will know that in the coolest months of the winter, the Eagle mine does not stack, Victoria does not stack ore. They mine, but they don't stack ore. So it's always meant to be their lowest production quarter. We saw that with what we received in Q1. Their guidance is maintained. So we fully expect there to be a continued ramp-up over the year with respect to our delivery ounces on Eagle. Add to that, they are working towards their Project 250, is what they called -- what they call it, to try to see if they can increase production to 250,000 ounces per annum by 2023 and the engineering work for that will be ongoing in the second half of this year. Just last point on the Eagle story, obviously, there was a fair bit of excitement yesterday with the announcement that an intermediate company has picked up just shy of 20,000 -- sorry, 20% of the company. I think for us or just in general, what that should show you is the scarcity value and the importance of 200,000 ounce a year type assets in Canada. Eagle is one which we have a royalty on, but we certainly have a portfolio with more of those in it. So we'll see how that continues to play out. On Slide 14, I won't spend a ton of time. Certainly, we can pick up on any of these names in the Q&A session, if you like, but I think the overall story is the same as it's been for a while, stable, steady production and a lot of exploration and mine-life extension, expansion upside potential on our producing asset base. On Slide 15, you just see the guidance, which I think most people will know, as I mentioned, we're on track there. In terms of the ramp-up assets, I touched on Eagle already, I touched on Mantos as well. Santana, we expect to start production in the second half of this year, which is Minera Alamos' mine. It's a nice -- it's not a large asset, about 1,000 ounces a year, but it will be a nice one to have into the portfolio, similarly for First Majestic's, Ermitaño, when that kicks in, most likely early next year. I think there's -- I'll pick on some of these for updates, not all, but we certainly expect there to be positive news. The Osisko Development story continues to progress well. On the Cariboo side, what that meant in Q1 was a significant amount of drilling, just shy of 50,000 meters were drilled. Some of that has made its way out into the market already, 10 rigs running. A lot of effort on infill, but there's certainly the infills coming in well, and there's extension drilling as well or drilling at depth, which continues to -- and in between the zones, frankly, which continues to prove out. So that story continues to move towards feasibility study and permitting. In the meantime, we expect production from Bonanza Ledge II, which is the satellite production -- sorry, satellite deposit in the near term. So that's doing what we're expecting it to. On San Antonio, the story there is to push forward on a lot of work to get it to catch up from a phase where the asset was dormant for a number of years. That includes exploration, which is ongoing. It includes engineering work and permitting. And all of that is progressing well towards initially stockpiled production later in the year, but then the larger heap leach project behind it. Windfall is another one worth touching on a little bit. With the revised PA that Osisko mining put out at a lower throughput than the current mill configuration that they've placed orders for, but still at that lower throughput, 300,000 ounces a year for the first 7 years, I believe it was. Long mine life, a lot of exploration potential there, just a really stunning combination of size and grade that's playing out in front of our eyes. Maybe the last couple of things I would point out, just in terms of quick updates. We saw a revised feasibility study for Form 5, which is the Falco asset, just updating from pricing and CapEx numbers essentially were costing numbers, I should say. Progress there, which was positive and progress there, obviously, still advancing with Glencore, which is the next major milestone. On Hermosa, we'll be expecting a pre-feasibility study in the second half of this year from South32 on what we think is one of the better, if not one of -- if not the best polymetallic development asset in the sector. Upper Beaver, and I'm getting close to the end, but there's a lot of catalysts on this page. I think it's worth pointing out some of them at least in high detail. Upper Beaver would like to see Agnico in their update, have that in the pipeline. They have it kind of us potentially coming into production in 2027. Put out significant amount of drilling in their last results with the best ever intercept at Upper Beaver, 60-some-odd grams, 1-odd percent copper over 17 meters. So it's nice to see that progressing towards a steady at the end of the year. And obviously, we have a 2% NSR there that most people probably forget that we own. And I'll touch on it later, but we added exposure to Spring Valley, which is a multimillion-ounce deposit, heap leach, good grade in Nevada, which we expect to find its way into an operating company of consequence over the foreseeable future. So a lot there, a lot of catalysts, a lot of growth, a lot of growth that we don't think we're getting value for. I think I'll touch on this again, but I think our current market cap could easily be justified just based on our producing assets. So this is significant value for shareholders that's on the come, and it's closer to fruition than it ever has been in the past. It also allows us to remain disciplined for growth in what we think is still a seller's market, and we're happy -- I'm certainly happy that the group invested as much as they did in growth during essentially $1,200 to $1,300 OR gold price environment. On Slide 16, just maybe finishing that story. As I mentioned, I think our production currently could justify our market cap. Depending on whose numbers you look at, we're basically 50-50. These are consensus numbers. 50-50 of our NAV is production and development. So there's a lot of built-in growth there that's paid for. And then to boot, we already -- we also have $1 billion roughly of equities that I don't think we get profit or credit for, and 2 of the highest quality developers in the space. And in a rising gold price environment, in a rising inflationary environment, we think that torque is important and will add significant value. I mentioned the amount of activity on our ground. On the right-hand side of Slide 16, you'll see it graphically. Essentially 1 million meters, 3 million feet a year on our royalty ground, which is a massive amount of drilling. And got that same type of number in 2020. Even though with COVID, exploration was one of the easiest things to take your foot off the gas on. Our producers kept production going as best they could. The exploration was an easier thing to delay. And so we expect these numbers to only intensify in 2021. On Slide 17, just as I mentioned, I kind of alluded to it earlier, a nice tuck-in acquisition for us on Spring Valley going from 0.5% NSR essentially to 3% NSR on what is 4 million ounces, mostly in the M&I category. Historically, I think Waterton will -- has put a lot of work into this asset, and we'll come out with an update in due course. But a significant resource, whatever the numbers are, good grade, in Nevada, an asset that we've known well for some time, and we're happy to get a bilateral acquisition done there from the seller -- or sellers. And if you look at the precedents and other kind of public data points, I think we've got a pretty good price on it. So a nice addition to the portfolio. Parral, just for your own note keeping and modeling purposes, we did convert just recently our offtake through Osisko Bermuda into a stream. Similar economics, but nice to get it kind of in a better accounting format. That was the last producing offtake that we had. So it's a cleanup exercise, small, but helpful. We also in the process took what was a capped offtake and turned it into an uncapped stream, so added some optionality through that project. On Slide 18, just from an ESG perspective, again, we're spending a bit of time on as we put out our inaugural report just a few weeks ago, maybe it's a month now. I think it's fair to say that you could almost think of our portfolio as having been built with ESG in mind. And frankly, it had. It just wasn't with a moniker attached to it. But clearly, we've always emphasized proper environmental, social responsibility in the assets we get involved in. If you don't diligence that, if you don't audit, track that, then you're really not diligencing a mining asset because those are some of the easiest places you can fall down. And given the track record of our team having had their own environmental and social license, know what it is to have it, know how hard it is to get it, know that it hurts when you lose it. So we can certainly -- we've certainly taken that into our business as a royalty company and know what to look for on operating that partner when we're getting involved in assets. So for us, that's the bare minimum. Diligence, auditing, exerting influence through contracts, being charitable when we've been blessed as a company and as individuals, that thought is the bare minimum and what you should do in terms of running a proper business. Since we can't ourselves reduce our footprint, we're reliant on the operating partners that we've chosen to get involved with to do that, and we're quite happy that they are doing that. We also chose to find something active that we could do. And then on Slide 19, you see an example of that, where we've partnered with a private Carbon Streaming royalty company or streaming company, I should say, through a small investment, CAD 3.5 million. And also, through that, have bought ourselves participating right to partner or to participate in 20% of their transactions should we choose to. So for us, it's a small investment with a potential high impact. It's not just us buying carbon credits to offset our exposure, but it's us potentially funding projects and increasing the amount of offsets that they are out there in the world, doing it accretively through a business model that we know well and perhaps getting better returns than are frankly available in the mining space right now. So for us, it fits into our other category, beyond precious metals. And if we can put some other into that category that's green as opposed to anything to the contrary, we think that's a benefit. But again, I would point out that these are small investments that can do a lot of good for our portfolio. And I'll probably -- probably I'm getting pretty close. I think if you just go to Slide 20 to end the conversation and start the Q&A. I'd say it's a business that's working at every level. A really strong quarter sets us up nicely for the rest of the year into what looked like strengthening gold and silver prices. A significant amount of cash flow, diversified cash flow. 80,000 ounces is the midpoint of our GEOs. Steady, long-life, no real drop-offs in that production, and a flagship that's getting better at a return. When you add the growth that we've paid for already and $1 billion in equities, I think that's a lot of torque to that rising gold price environment. So with that, operator, I thank everybody for their time to date and happy to open up for questions.