Sandstorm Gold Ltd.
Overview
Sandstorm Gold Ltd. is a mid-tier gold royalty and streaming company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, operating primarily in Canada and South America. Key assets include Fruta Del Norte, Greenstone, Hod Maden, Mara, and Platreef. The organization operates as a non-operating streaming and royalty company, providing upfront capital to mining companies in exchange for long-term agreements to purchase a percentage of future metal production or receive a portion of revenue. The business model is focused on acquiring streams and royalties on assets characterized by low production costs, significant exploration potential, and strong operating partners. As of year-end 2024, the portfolio comprised 231 stream and royalty interests, with 41 of the underlying assets in production. This model provides exposure to commodity price upside while insulating the company from direct operating and capital cost inflation, as well as most environmental and reclamation liabilities associated with mine operations. A core element of the enterprise's risk management is the diversification of its asset base, which mitigates exposure to single-asset or operator-specific challenges. The company competes with other royalty and streaming firms as well as traditional financing sources, such as equity and debt, to secure new investment opportunities.
Strategy
Strategic focus centers on disciplined growth and active portfolio management. The enterprise pursues expansion through the acquisition of new streams and royalties, demonstrated by several large-scale transactions, while simultaneously optimizing its asset base through the divestiture of non-core interests to specialized vehicles. A key component of the business strategy involves creating strategic partnerships, such as spinning out development assets to a dedicated partner entity in which the company retains significant equity and stream interests, thereby reducing direct development risk while retaining exposure to future production. Capital allocation priorities are balanced between funding new acquisitions and returning value to shareholders. Financial flexibility is maintained through the use of base shelf prospectuses and at-the-market equity programs. Shareholder returns are managed through a formal dividend policy, reviewed quarterly, and an active Normal Course Issuer Bid, facilitated by an Automatic Share Purchase Plan to enable repurchases during blackout periods.
Management
Governance is overseen by a board of 8 directors, 6 of whom are independent, ensuring objective oversight. The board operates through 4 specialized committees: Audit, Corporate Governance & Nominating, Compensation, and a Sustainability committee established in 2024. Executive leadership possesses extensive experience in the royalty and streaming sector, with the President and CEO having previously served as Chief Financial Officer at a major industry peer. The management framework is supported by a comprehensive suite of governance policies, including a Clawback Policy for incentive compensation, Stock Ownership Guidelines for executives and directors, and an Anti-Hedging Policy. The Audit Committee, composed entirely of independent and financially literate directors, meets at least quarterly and holds separate sessions with the Chief Financial Officer and external auditors to ensure financial integrity and transparency. This structured approach to governance and leadership aims to align management actions with shareholder interests and maintain high ethical standards.
Sustainability
A key feature of the entity's sustainability approach is its credit facility, which was the first in the royalty sector to link borrowing costs to the achievement of specific ESG performance targets. Governance is formalized through a board-level Sustainability Committee, established in 2024, which oversees the company's ESG strategy and performance. The organization reports climate-related risks and opportunities in alignment with the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and has set a target to achieve carbon neutrality for its direct emissions by 2035, having already reached net-zero for its Scope 2 emissions in 2023. Social commitments are demonstrated by the achievement of a 2024 diversity target for women and other diverse persons to represent 50% of senior management and the board. ESG considerations are integrated into the investment due diligence process, and the company has previously rejected transactions based on these factors. Agreements are sometimes structured to include funding for local environmental and social programs at the mine level.
Structure
The corporate structure has been shaped by significant transactions, including the 2022 acquisition of Nomad Royalty Company Ltd., which expanded the asset portfolio through an all-share transaction. In the same year, the company completed the acquisition of a substantial royalty package from BaseCore Metals LP, an entity owned by Glencore Plc and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, for cash and shares. A pivotal structural development was the 2022 spin-out transaction that created Horizon Copper Corp., a strategic partner in which the company holds an approximate 34% equity interest and a convertible note. This arrangement allows the company to hold stream and royalty interests on development projects operated by Horizon. The portfolio is actively managed through divestitures, including the sale of non-core royalty packages to Versamet Royalties Corp. in 2022 and 2023 and to Evolve Strategic Element Royalties Ltd. in 2024, recycling capital while refining asset exposure. Following its acquisition, Nomad was amalgamated into the parent company effective January 1, 2025.
Source
Sandstorm Gold Ltd. - Annual Information Form - 2024
- Project should be interpreted as a single, group or complex of mines, deposits or other mineral assets. Name of the project should be identical to the official company naming convention.
- The ranges of values provided are indicative and should not be regarded as exact figures.
- Figures for exploration and development projects are based on available data and are indicative only; actual values may vary substantially.
- Royalties frequently apply to specific mineralized areas that may not coincide exactly with the boundaries of the overall project. As a result, even if a mine is currently in operation, the portion subject to the royalty may not be included in extraction activities until future years.
- Commodities are listed from most dominant to least dominant. Only selected commodities are shown.
- Table might not include all projects that are currently owned by the company. Displayed data are snapshots of the company's projects in time and might not be up to date.
- Exploration projects are partially represented in the table. Only projects with mineralization or strategic importance are shown.
- Companies might own processing facilities that are not included in the table. Those facilities play important role especially for companies operating in uranium, nickel and lithium sectors.
- Chart is always based on the company's primary listing.
- Presented values are denominated in currency of the country where the company is headquartered. Values like market capitalization might differ from the values visible in other parts of the page, where the currency is always USD.
- koz au: Thousand ounces of gold (production volume)
- moz au: Million ounces of gold (resource base or production volume)
- g/t: Grams per tonne (grade of gold or silver in ore)
- usd/oz au: US dollars per ounce of gold (cost metric)
- moz ag: Million ounces of silver (resource base or production volume)
- g/t ag: Grams per tonne of silver in ore (grade)
- usd/oz ag: US dollars per ounce of silver (cost metric)
- kt cu: Thousand tonnes of copper (production volume)
- mt ore: Million tonnes of ore (resource base for copper)
- %: Percent copper or uranium in ore (grade)
- usd/lb cu: US dollars per pound of copper (cost metric)
- mlb U3O8: Million pounds of uranium oxide (U3O8) (production or resource base)
- % eU3O8: Percent equivalent uranium oxide in ore (grade)
- usd/lb u3o8: US dollars per pound of uranium oxide (cost metric)
- Open Pit: Surface mining method using large excavated terraces to extract ore
- Underground: Subsurface mining through shafts, tunnels, and chambers
- ISR (In-Situ Recovery): Solution mining method using chemical leaching without excavation
- Exploration: Early-stage project searching for and defining mineral deposits
- Development: Mine under construction or preparation for production
- Operating: Active mine currently extracting and processing ore
- Expansion: Mine temporarily suspended or with limited production, in progress to increase production in the future
- Reclamation: Mine permanently closed or no longer producing, but the site is being rehabilitated
- P&P (Proven and Probable Reserves): Highest confidence mineral resources with detailed mine plans, it's a subset of M&I
- M&I (Measured and Indicated Resources): Well-defined resources with good geological confidence
- Inf (Inferred Resources): Estimated resources with limited geological confidence
- Scoping Study: High-level assessment to determine if a project warrants further investigation
- PEA (Preliminary Economic Assessment): Initial economic evaluation of a mineral project
- Pre-Feasibility (Preliminary Feasibility Study): Intermediate-level technical and economic assessment
- Feasibility (Definitive Feasibility Study): Comprehensive technical and economic evaluation for investment decisions
- BFS (Bankable Feasibility Study): Detailed study meeting lender requirements for project financing
- NPV (Net Present Value): Discounted value of future cash flows minus initial investment
- IRR (Internal Rate of Return): Discount rate that makes NPV equal to zero
- Payback Period: Time required to recover initial capital investment from project cash flows
- AISC (All-In Sustaining Cost): Total cost per ounce including sustaining capital and corporate costs
- Royalty: Payment to landowner/government based on percentage of production value or revenue
- Stream: Agreement to purchase future production at predetermined price, often below market rate
- NSR (Net Smelter Return): Royalty based on net revenue after smelting and refining costs
- GRR (Gross Revenue Royalty): Royalty based on total gross revenue before any deductions
- NPI (Net Profits Interest): Royalty based on net profits after operating costs and capital recovery