Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) President and CEO Haytham Hodaly said the company is expanding its technical team and reviewing a larger-than-usual pipeline of potential streaming transactions as it pursues growth through 2030.
Speaking at a company event, Hodaly said Wheaton has increased its workforce to 48 employees after adding three technical hires during the past month. The additions come as the company evaluates between 20 and 25 opportunities at a given time, compared with a more typical range of 12 to 15 opportunities.
Due Diligence and Returns
According to Hodaly, Wheaton’s technical team rebuilds drill-hole databases, develops its own reserve and resource estimates, and assesses engineering plans before comparing its work with technical reports supplied by project operators. The company then evaluates possible expansions, recoveries, grades, efficiency gains and exploration potential, he said.
Social, financial and legal teams also participate in the assessment and structuring of potential transactions. Hodaly said Wheaton often enters life-of-mine agreements, making long-term expansion potential an important consideration.
He said Wheaton has generated an internal rate of return near 20% over the past 20 years and currently has return on invested capital near 20%. Hodaly attributed part of those returns to the timing of its capital commitments, saying Wheaton generally does not provide most project funding until a project is near construction and has been further de-risked.
“Often what we do is we’ll put up, let’s say, 10% of the stream value up front to allow them to advance it through to the construction stage and the permitting stage,” Hodaly said.
2030 Production Outlook
Hodaly said Wheaton expects production to increase from about 800,000 gold equivalent ounces to 1.2 million gold equivalent ounces by 2030. He characterized that target as conservative and said it is underpinned by nine development projects, including six already under construction. Several other projects are nearing commercial production or awaiting final investment decisions, he said.
The company has not included additional potential growth from existing assets in its 1.2 million-ounce projection, according to Hodaly. He cited potential expansions or higher production at Salobo, Koné, Kurmuk and Hemlo, as well as possible future contributions from Generation Mining and Aris Mining’s Toroparu project.
At Salobo in Brazil, Wheaton’s largest contributor to production, Hodaly said the operator has expanded processing capacity from one 12-million-tonne line to three such lines. A coarse particle flotation circuit is expected to add another 6 million tonnes to the third line, he said, potentially helping offset declining grades as the mine matures.
Hodaly said Wheaton’s share of output from Salobo could approach 300,000 ounces annually. While Salobo currently represents about 37% of Wheaton’s production, he said that proportion could decline to roughly 27% by 2030 as other assets enter production.
Capital Deployment and Larger Transactions
Wheaton has committed $4.6 billion so far in 2026, Hodaly said, following approximately $5.5 billion deployed during the past 12 months. That compares with a more typical annual deployment range of $800 million to $1 billion over the past decade.
Hodaly said the company has roughly $2.6 billion of capacity available for new investments and adds about $250 million monthly. While he expects most potential transactions to remain below $500 million, he said billion-dollar-plus deals could occur about once annually over the next five to 10 years.
He pointed to the company’s $4.3 billion Antamina transaction as an example of a larger deal that required years of discussions. Hodaly said Wheaton first became familiar with Antamina in 2016 and believes the asset could operate for 60 to 90 years, based on its due diligence and ongoing work by its owners. Antamina’s current permitted period runs to 2036, he said, with tailings capacity representing a constraint during the next decade.
Dividend Priorities
Hodaly said Wheaton intends to continue increasing its progressive dividend as production and commodity prices support cash flow. He said the dividend rose 3% three years ago, 7% last year and 18% this year.
However, he emphasized that the company’s primary capital-allocation objective remains deploying capital into high-quality assets on an accretive basis, with dividend growth as a secondary objective.
About Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM)
Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. is a precious metals streaming company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. Rather than operating mines directly, the company provides mining companies with upfront financing in exchange for the right to purchase a portion of the gold, silver, palladium, cobalt and other metals produced by designated mining operations at predetermined prices.
Wheaton’s streaming portfolio is supported by agreements with mining operations in the Americas and other regions, including Canada, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Brazil and Chile.
