Silver Wheaton Management Presents At Bank Of America Merrill Lynch 18th Annual Mining Conference (Transcript)

The model works primarily because the silver is worth more to us and our shareholders than it is our counterparties. So we can structure deals that create value for both our shareholders and the mining company’s shareholders, so creating a win-win type structure. That’s the primary reason that the counterparties tend to subscribe to streaming as a form of capital but there is a host of other reasons, one of which is the flexible nature of the form of capital that we provide without – there is no fixed repayment terms under these streaming arrangements and so we take operating risk alongside with the mining company which really in these times of uncertain economic climates results in a form of capital that’s very attractive.

Who is Silver Wheaton? Well, Silver Wheaton is the largest of the metal streaming and royalty companies by market cap and we are the second largest silver company in the world by market cap. We are the largest silver company in the world by resource base and we not only have the largest resource base but the highest quality resource base with over 800 million ounces coming in the form of proven and probable reserves. Based upon our 2012 silver production guidance, we expect to produce just under 26 million ounces silver which sets us as the second largest silver producer of this year.

We have interest in 21 different mining assets, 17 of which are operational and four of which are in the development stage. Those are located in nine different countries and our arrangements with 14 different counterparties. So the portfolio of assets that we have is well diversified not only operationally and geographically but also by counterparty. And they are very high quality assets that underlie these streams and we measure quality by the – where those operations fall and the respective cost curves and the life of the mine remaining. And if you look at our 2012 to 2016 forecast production, about 80% of our production comes from mines that operate in the lowest quartile, which means that they can withstand virtually any commodity price cycle and continue operating for profit. And the life of the mines underlying our assets are also very long, with over half of 2012 production coming from mines that have over 15 years of mine life remaining, and that only gets better over time with over 70% of our production in 2016 coming from mines that have over 15 years of mine life remaining.

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