Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

The Fenix Gold, we would hope they move forward with the construction decision later this year. So, that’s $25 million. We’ve got $17 million that we will pay relative to the Mt. Todd royalty. And that’s pretty much everything that we expect this year.

Randy Smallwood: There is a possibility that Curipamba might move forward a bit. We’ve got that scheduled in next year. But with the success they’ve had on permitting and they are considering going into a construction decision. We might see that move forward. That’s a great news story.

Gary Brown: And that would be $162 million.

Randy Smallwood: Unlikely, we pay all of that, but we might be paying a bit of that here in this year as they as they, if they may go ahead and make a construction decision, which they’re seriously, looking at.

Tanya Jakusconek: No. Thanks for that. I just want to make sure I have the big ticket ones definitely in the model. And then, I just wanted to ask just also on that guidance on depreciation we’re getting with Q2, but maybe G&A that you usually provide for us and then also an understanding of the quarterly guidance. Should I be thinking 48%, 52% first half, second half?

Randy Smallwood: Yes. I guess, I mean, from the G&A perspective, what we’ve got is $41 million to $45 million over the course of the year, and spread out evenly across that. In terms of production, there’s no doubt that Salobo is a key influence, and they expect to be running that. It’s a 90-day completion test to take get that second phase. And that’s going to be their current schedule has that being satisfied during the fourth quarter, but they’re going to have to start that in the third quarter to go forward. And that’ll be running at a minimum of 35 million tonnes per annum. Keep in mind, the asset has a capacity of 36 million tonnes per annum. So, I would probably lean it a little bit towards you’re probably not too far off the 48%, 52%, 48% first half, 52% second half.

It might even be 47%, 53%. There’s definitely going to be a little bit of a bias towards the tail-end of the year mainly because we Salobo is ramping up through the course of the year. The other area we’re going to see gains over the course of the year is Voisey’s Bay on the cobalt side. Every quarter, there’s going to be a higher percentage of underground feed satisfying, and that stuff is much higher grade than what we’re currently, currently using from the open pit.

Tanya Jakusconek: Yes. No. I appreciate that. And then, my final question maybe for Haytham is, again, coming back to the transaction, activity or the M&A activity out there. I’m just kind of curious whether now are you switching back to focusing on production over development, or are you happy to take a mix? So, I’m just wondering, again, size wise and development over production, how do you see that in your portfolio?

Haytham Hodaly: Sure. And, I think you’re right. For the last few years it has been focused on development, what we’ve seen is a little bit of focus on balance sheet strengthening by some of the potential diversified and other producers out there. So, I think it’s probably a 50-50 mix, I’d say, right now. 50% is probably still looking at development stage opportunities and the other 50% is looking at balance sheet strengthening. I don’t want to say balance sheet repair, but people are trying to shore up their balance sheets to be able to add and to increase, acquire, etcetera, in this environment. And that’s an area that they’re coming to us and looking for guidance on. I would say that the majority of the opportunities we’re looking at are still sub-300.

But as always, there’s a couple that are greater than 500 that take some time to foster, and hopefully, we can get those across the line. I’ll also add, Tanya, one thing you’ve got, I mean, 17 years as an analyst, I don’t think anybody ever got my name right on a conference call. So, you’re already up on me there.

Tanya Jakusconek: Oh my gosh, that’s excellent. Thank you so much. I’ll give it to somebody else to ask. I could go on for a long time here otherwise. Thank you.

Randy Smallwood: Okay. Always happy to talk to you, Tanya. Thanks.

Operator: Your next question comes from Brian MacArthur from Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Brian MacArthur: Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. Can I go back to the GMT? You talked about how you’re going to book it, first quarter and low second quarter higher. But, can you go through on a cash basis when you’ll actually make payments because you also talk about there’s some credits about G&A financing, etcetera. And, you just walk through how you think that will evolve over the next few years when you think you’ll actually have to start making cash payments related to the GMT?

Gary Brown: Yes. For the amounts accrued in 2024, we won’t actually disperse those until 2026. And I think what we’ve been guiding people to is, you take our non-Canadian income and you apply a 15% tax rate to that. So, there won’t be much like additional deductions. But we will, yes, it’s income. So, it does reflects the depletion of the upfront payment.

Brian MacArthur: So, as I roll forward then, if I’m paying my 2024 on a cash basis in ‘26, does it keep going that way that your ‘25 will be paid in ‘27 or always, like, on a 18-months lag, or does it get trued up and eventually you start paying on a run rate? I’m trying to figure out whether it’s actually just deferred the payment on a lag basis or are you actually get full credit and shelter some of the cash upfront?

Gary Brown: Yeah. At this point, I think we’re operating on the basis that it will be on that kind of two year deferral basis or year and a half deferral basis.