Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And Rosemont/Copper World is a very low-risk, very high-value project for that community, for the country as a whole and so, once we see that pre-feasibility come in, we’ll have a good look at it, and then we’ll sit down and talk about how we continue to grow our partnership with HUDBay. I’m not expecting any issues there. It’s a good, strong asset as a whole, and we’ll see how that moves forward, but we’re still waiting for those details, too. I think there’s still — HUDBay’s got several different options as Copper World comes into play, and I think they’re still sort of fine-tuning that. That’s why they haven’t released it yet.

Ralph Profiti: Yeah, got you. Okay, well, thanks, Randy and Gary.

Operator: Your next question is from Martin Pradier from Veritas Investment Research. Please ask your question.

Martin Pradier: Thank you. My question is about the second half for Salobo. How are we seeing it? Do you think it can maintain or increase the production that they had in Q2?

Randy Smallwood: I’ll let Wes take that one.

Wes Carson: Sure. Yeah, no, thanks for the question. Really, we’re definitely encouraged by what we saw in Q2 here, and the certainly Salobo III moving ahead and then Salobo I and Salobo II seem to come kind of back in line with expectations. We’re really excited about where things are going for the rest of the year here. And there was in the forecast and kind of the budget for the rest of the year, there was an increase as they brought Salobo III inline, and we certainly expect them to kind of get in that same kind of vein as what we saw in Q2 and carry on for the rest of the year. As Randy said earlier, I mean, the more that we can see them getting closer to that expansion payment, the better off that we’re going to be moving forward.

Randy Smallwood: We know that their intent is to try and satisfy the first phase of that expansion payment, which is 32 million tonnes per annum at a run rate. And so that’s a 90-day completion test for that first phase expansion. And so we know that they’re striving towards making sure that, that gets satisfied in the second half of this year. And so there’s no doubt that we’re going to see continued growth at Salobo over the course of the year. what’s exciting is the potential scale of that growth.

Martin Pradier: What would they — in terms of tons per day in Q2?

Gary Brown: It was running at about 70%, three lines lining the vote — so in order to achieve the 32 million tons per annum, they would have to be running at closer to 90% present. Still a ways to go to get to that completion test, but that move in the right direction. Yes. I should — worth noting as well that we were down there in April this past April. And really, things are moving along extremely well. And that relationship with Vale continues to improve and really a great group down there that is moving things in the right direction.

Randy Smallwood: Yes, I was going to highlight that 70% is an average over the Q2. It was definitely higher towards the end of that. So it doesn’t seem like that far of a stretch for them. They’re pretty comfortable that they’re going to be able to satisfy this.

Martin Pradier: Perfect. And on Cangrejos, is that fully permitted and will be impacted by the claim on the presidential decree the regulated environmental consultation, which is impacting your other mine that it seems to be — well, there is a claim that is unconstitutional, that presidential degree.