Mining
How Precious Metals Streaming Works
Miners seeking new capital have always had a variety of options: they could issue new shares, take out a loan, enter into joint-venture agreements, or divest non-core assets.
However, in the last decade, a new option has emerged called “precious metals streaming” – in which streaming companies essentially offer capital up front to mining companies in exchange for metal later. If properly executed, the end result is a win for both parties that can ultimately provide value to investors.
Precious Metals Streaming
Today’s infographic from Silver Wheaton explains the precious metals streaming model, and the arbitrage opportunity that creates value for both the streamer and the miner seeking to acquire capital:
The aforementioned arbitrage opportunity in precious metals streaming is key.
For a traditional base metal miner, the majority of forecasted mine revenue may come from a metal like copper or nickel. However, along with those “target” metals, smaller amounts of gold and silver may be produced from the deposit as well.
Investors would still value those by-product precious metals in a base metal miner’s portfolio, but the metals may be typically valued at an even higher multiple in a precious metal streamer’s portfolio. This allows the base metal miner to transfer these future “streams” to the streamer in exchange for up-front capital, which can be a win-win scenario for both parties.
Streaming Benefits
In other words, miners use streaming to acquire non-dilutive financing, and to extract value from non-core assets. This allows them to deploy capital on purposes more central to their strategy. Major miners such as Teck, Barrick Gold, Vale, and Glencore all sold streams in 2015.
Meanwhile, streaming companies have been very successful since this model was first pioneered 12 years ago. They are getting gold and silver at a discount, and this has created significant amounts of value for investors over the last decade. Today, there are many valuable streaming companies out there, including the major ones such as Silver Wheaton, Royal Gold, and Franco-Nevada.
Copper
Brass Rods: The Secure Choice
This graphic shows why brass rods are the secure choice for precision-machined and forged parts.
Brass Rods: The Secure Choice
The unique combination of machinability and recyclability makes brass rods the secure choice for manufacturers seeking future-proof raw material solutions.
This infographic, from the Copper Development Association, shows three ways brass rods give manufacturers greater control and a license to grow in the competitive market for precision-machined and forged products.
Future-Proof Investments in New Machine Tools
A material’s machinability directly impacts machine throughput, which typically has the largest impact on machine shop profitability.
The high-speed machining capabilities of brass rods maximize machine tool performance, allowing manufacturers to run the material faster and longer without sacrificing tool life, chip formation, or surface quality.
The high machining efficiency of brass leads to reduced per-part costs, quicker return on investment (ROI) for new machine tools, and expanded production capacity for new projects.
Supply Security Through Closed Loop Recycling
Brass, like its parent element copper, can be infinitely recycled.
In 2022, brass- and wire-rod mills accounted for the majority of the 830,000 tonnes of copper recycled from scrap in the United States.
Given that scrap ratios for machined parts typically range from 60-70% by weight, producing mills benefit from a secure and steady supply of clean scrap returned directly from customers, which is recycled to create new brass rods.
The high residual value of brass scrap creates a strong recycling incentive. Scrap buy back programs give manufacturers greater control over raw material net costs as scrap value is often factored into supplier purchase agreements.
Next Generation Alloys for a Lead-Free Future
Increasingly stringent global regulations continue to pressure manufacturers to minimize the use of materials containing trace amounts of lead and other harmful impurities.
The latest generation of brass-rod alloys is engineered to meet the most demanding criteria for lead leaching in drinking water and other sensitive applications.
Seven brass-rod alloys passed rigorous testing to become the only ‘Acceptable Materials’ against lower lead leaching criteria recently adopted in the national U.S. drinking water quality standard, NSF 61.
Learn more about the advantages of brass rods solutions.
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