Investor Insight
Silver prices breached $30/oz in the second half of May 2024 as investor demand drove prices to their highest in more than a decade. Strong imports and low stocks in China reflect robust solar industry demand, which is expected to maintain momentum in China and elsewhere as economies ramp up their clean energy ambitions. With mine supply struggling to keep pace with demand, we believe further price appreciation is likely, making Silver Crown Royalties well-placed to leverage this positive silver market.
Overview
Silver Crown Royalties is a pre-IPO stage, revenue-generating silver-only royalty company focusing on silver as by-product credits. The company targets royalty originations on producing or near-producing assets in tier 1 jurisdictions. The company has two current sources of revenue (Gold Mountain and Pilar Gold) and continues to build on this foundation, targeting additional operational silver-producing projects.
As a pure-play silver equity company, Silver Crown offers organic growth, exploration upside and dividend payments. The company’s business model includes acquiring a guaranteed amount of silver delivered as by-product from mining operations, paying a dividend to shareholders, and keeping all excess cash in silver bullion. “An investment in Silver Crown is a protection against currency devaluation,” says Peter Bures, founder, chairman and CEO of Silver Crown.
Diversification is a key strategy for the company, with the objective to grow its portfolio to more than 200 silver-only royalties that pay dividends, creating more value for shareholders.
Silver Crown is led by board members, founders and advisors with hundreds of years of collective experience in world renowned international brokerage, royalty, fund management and mining companies.
Company Highlights
Silver Crown Royalties is a unique investment opportunity in the financial sector, focused on generating consistent and growing income sources through its expanding portfolio of silver mining royalty interests. Silver Crown is continuing to advance a number of royalty acquisition opportunities and progress towards its public listing in Q3 2024. Silver Crown offers shareholders both an economically and ecologically efficient investment. Since the silver that the company invests in is typically a byproduct of metal mining, it has no discernible mining cost or environmental impact.The company is looking all over the world for projects that have silver as a byproduct and aims to unlock the value of those operations for both its partners and shareholders.
Current Key Royalties
Gold Mountain Mining: In Q2 2023, Silver Crown Royalties entered into a royalty purchase agreement with Gold Mountain Mining (TSX:GMTN;OTC:GMTNF) on 90 percent of the aggregate gross proceeds of silver sold from the Elk Gold Mine. The Elk Gold Project is a past producing and newly permitted mine located approximately 57 km from Merritt, British Columbia. The claims and leases comprising the Elk Gold Project cover over 21,000 hectares.
Pilar Gold: On August 21, 2023, Silver Crown announced its entry into a definitive agreement providing for 90 percent of the silver sold as a result of the processing of ores extracted from Pilar Gold’s PGDM complex and related milling operations in Goias State, Brazil. Pilar Gold has a portfolio of operations in Brazil with an annual production of ~45,000 oz gold and medium term aspirations to reach 125,000 oz gold per annum. The company acquired its flagship PGDM operation in April 2021, which includes three underground mines, one open-pit project in the development stage, and a 4,500 tpd modern processing facility along with significant associated infrastructure. PGDM uses a ‘hub and spoke’ strategy with satellite mines in the Goiás region, through which it plans to achieve aggressive production growth over the near term.
Tucano Gold: On January 18, 2024, Silver Crown announced its entry into a royalty purchase agreement with Tucano Gold, whereby Tucano Gold will deliver 90 percent of the payable silver produced, but no less than the cash equivalent of 7,000 oz annually from the Mina Tucano project. Assuming the closing of the transaction, minimum silver equivalent deliveries start on January 1, 2025, and continue for up to 10 years. Mina Tucano is an open-pit gold mining operation, fully equipped with a modern 10,000 tpd gold plant and sizable resources. Up until 2020, it was producing more than 120,000 oz gold per annum at grades of 1.2 to 1.4 grams per ton.
Management Team
Peter Bures – Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Peter Bures is a geological and mineral engineer with more than 25 years of mining and metals capital market expertise. Recent experience includes CEO at C2C Gold, co-founder and chief business development officer at Star Royalties, director of global mining sales at BMO Capital Markets (New York), and portfolio management at Sentry Investments, where he co-managed several top-ranked funds. He also held various equity research roles, including VP analyst at Canaccord Genuity, HSBC (New York and Toronto), and Orion Securities. Bures began his career as a mining engineer at Placer Dome and is a graduate of BASc Geo. Eng. at the University of Toronto.
Hassnain Raza – Chief Financial Officer
Hassnain Raza is a CPA with more than 20 years of financial experience in Canada, the USA, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean, serving both public and private sector clients. Raza is the founding partner of a boutique consulting firm specializing in CFO advisory services to start-ups and SMEs. Previously held senior management and leadership roles at Namaste Technologies and Senior Manager at KPMG. He is the founder and patron of Allama Iqbal Model School in Pakistan, providing free education (kindergarten to grade 10).
Patrick Sullivan – Corporate Secretary
Patrick Sullivan is a mining, M&A, and securities lawyer at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. With over a decade of experience in the mining sector, he has advised a wide range of clients in connection with joint ventures, options, mineral property acquisition, royalty and streaming agreements, and mineral tenure issues. Sullivan has acted on several of the most significant mining transactions in Canada, including South32 Limited’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Arizona Mining, Washington Companies’ $1.2 billion acquisition of Dominion Diamond, and Hudbay Minerals’ $555 million acquisition of Augusta Resource Corporation.
Wray Carvelas – Technical Advisor
Wray Carvelas provided 25 years of visionary leadership, developing and implementing ambitious strategic plans. Carelas is the founder and CEO of Ascencia Group, providing strategic and executive leadership development to the mining industry. He is also a director at Heritage Mining. Carvelas’ previous experience includes senior positions at DRA Global responsible for business growth and development in North and South America, as well as KBR, ELB, and De Beers managing development, production and metallurgical (R&D and capital management).
Frank Balint – Technical Advisor
Frank Balint is a seasoned mining executive with over 35 years of broad-ranging experience in the mining industry. He has been involved in all aspects of the mining life cycle and possesses strong technical skills backed up by solid financial experience that have resulted in a strong exploration and acquisition track record. Previously a senior member of the executive team at Inmet for nearly 20 years, he was crucial in executing corporate strategy that saw Inmet grow its market cap to over $5 billion. He was the former director of Wolfden Resources, which was sold to Zinifex for $363 million. Balint is a licensed professional geologist in Ontario, British Columbia, and the Northwest Territories.