Gold Mining Royalties

Operating margin for every tracked company, ranked. The royalty and streaming names cluster at the top because they fund mines rather than operate them, carrying no mine operating or capital cost. This single chart is the clearest argument for treating them as a separate business from mining.

The segment on its own. Franco-Nevada, Wheaton and Royal Gold earn roughly 59 to 71 percent operating margins from revenue bases a fraction of the miners', which is why they command premium valuations.

Revenue for the most recent fiscal year. Note the scale against the producers: these are small revenue lines converting at very high margins, not large businesses.

Six years of revenue. Growth comes from funding new mines and from the metal price lifting existing royalties, without the cost inflation that erodes producer margins in the same period.

Gold-equivalent ounces as each company reports them. Wheaton prints attributable production. Franco-Nevada, Royal Gold and Triple Flag print GEOs sold. Sandstorm has no standalone FY 2025 figure after the Royal Gold close on 20 October 2025. GEO conversion uses each company's own price deck, so the lines are not additive.

Operating cash flow minus capex, USD. A stream purchase hits capex in the year it is funded, then the metal shows up as cash later. That is why a high-FCF year and a low-FCF year can sit next to each other without a change in the mines.

Wheaton's cash cost per GEO is a production payment under a stream contract. Miner AISC is cash cost plus royalties, sustaining capital and overhead. They are different definitions, not two points on one cost curve. The gap is the structural difference between financing a mine and running one.

GEOs sold split between gold and other (silver, energy royalties and non-gold metals). The energy and other-metal book is why Franco-Nevada is not a pure gold streamer.

GEOs sold split between gold and other. Triple Flag is smaller than Franco-Nevada or Wheaton and more silver-weighted than the large gold streamers.

Gold ounces delivered from the Pueblo Viejo stream, the flagship asset on Barrick and Newmont's Dominican Republic mine. One mine, one contract, three years of deliveries. This is how a stream shows up in ounces, not in mine capex.

Simple average of company operating margins by segment and year. Each name counts equally, so Newmont does not swamp Alamos. The royalty average sits far above the miner average in every year in this window because streamers do not run mines.

Capex divided by revenue, latest fiscal year, USD filers. Miners must keep spending to replace depleted reserves. Royalty companies spend when they buy a new stream, then collect. A quiet year of no new deals makes a royalty name look like a low-capex business. A year with a large stream purchase does not.

A structural comparison from company 10-K and MD&A descriptions. A royalty is usually a percentage of net smelter return with no ongoing payment. A stream is an agreement to buy a share of future metal at a fixed low cash cost after an upfront payment. Neither is a mine.