Royal Gold, Inc. (RGLD) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary
July 16, 2026
Earnings Call Speaker Segments
Noella Alexander-Young
analystWelcome to today's virtual non-deal roadshow. My name is Noella Alexander Young, Virtual Event -- moderator here at Renmark Financial Communications. On behalf of our team, we'd like to thank everyone in Houston and surrounding areas for joining us today for the presentation of Royal Gold trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol RGLD. Presenting today is Alistair Baker, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Business Development. The presentation will last approximately 25 minutes and will be followed by a Q&A session for which you can by using the chat box in the corner. With that being said, I will now hand the floor over to Alistair.
Alistair Baker
executiveWell, thank you very much, Noella, and thanks, as always, to Ran mark for the opportunity to present today. There's been a lot of news at Royal go all over the past several quarters. A lot of that has not been recognized yet by the market, and gold is taking a bit of a breather. So I think it's pretty timely to give you an update today. So I'll start with the obligatory comments on forward-looking statements. During today's presentation, I will be making forward-looking statements. There are risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. And all of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in our most recent Form 10-K filing with the SEC. So during the course of this presentation, I'll give you the investment thesis for Royal Gold. So in a sentence, we are a high-margin business. We generate consistent cash flows from precious metals, and we're not a mining company. And this presentation is divided into sections that talk about the key attributes of Royal Gold in our business model. So first, I'll talk about our focus on precious metals with gold being the biggest focus. And I'll talk about our high-margin business with a long-standing commitment to dividend growth. Then I'll talk about our portfolio, which is the most diversified amongst our peers in terms of assets, operators and jurisdictions. I'll talk about our business model, which has limited operating risks by having steady margins and no direct exposure to inflation pressures talk about our size. We think we're the right size for a small sector. We can compete for the largest transactions, but we can also do small transactions that show meaningful growth. And then finally, I'll end with a comment about embedded optionality within the portfolio and the fact that we do not have to pay for organic growth that comes from within the portfolio, whether that be through mine expansions or extensions. So in summary, 2025 was a very active and what we like to say a transformational year for Royal Gold. We completed the Sandstorm and Horizon corporate acquisitions, and they closed in mid-October last year. With those transactions, we added significant growth and diversification to the portfolio. We also added a couple of additional assets to the portfolio during the year. We added Kansanshi and [indiscernible] gold streams. At Kansanshi, we acquired a gold stream on a cash flowing asset. It's a world-class copper mine in Zambia. And at Orensa, we added a gold stream to an emerging Tier 1 development project in Ecuador. So we hope where it will be 1 day a world-class producing asset as well. But it wasn't just acquisitions that we did in 2025 that are notable. We saw some optionality surface from within the portfolio. So we had mine life extension announcement of Mount Milligan, taking that mine life to 2045 and potentially beyond. In a [indiscernible], Barrick has been doing some significant work on the formal project in Nevada that shows that it's probably one of the best gold discoveries over the past several decades. And we have full exposure to that. So what have we done since closing those transactions that I talked about? We've had one quarter so far this year of consolidated financial results to reflect all of these activities. And that quarter was the first quarter of this year. We released our results in early May for the first quarter. We had record revenue, cash flow and earnings. And we had $391 million of adjusted EBITDA for that first quarter. So very strong financial performance. We've repaid $800 million of debt since the middle of October. And we've increased our portfolio reserve life by about 25% over the prior year to 18 years. That's not including our source conversion potential. We've also done a number of things within the portfolio, and we addressed some of the more complicated features of the Sandstorm portfolio. And we've cleaned up some of the things that we thought needed to be addressed. So we sold over $200 million worth of noncore equity positions that we inherited through Sandstorm. And we raised our dividend at the end of the year for the 25th consecutive year. So a lot of activity and we added scale, diversification and growth, put in some very solid financial results and we have not changed our strategy. So it was a very good year for us, and we're starting to see hopefully this as a new base for us to grow from. So I'll start by talking about our gold focus. And we have been in the business for well over 40 years. It's very gold focused. Our strategy has been gold focused since day 1. We started in the mid-1980s and this is the 45 -- 45th year of us being on the NASDAQ Exchange. Our strategy, as I said, has been consistent over that entire time period. We're very much focused on gold revenue from good assets in good jurisdictions operated by good counterparties. And as you can see on the slide, our revenue has grown consistently over the past several years, and the metal mix has not changed significantly. We aim to provide our shareholders gold exposure in a conservatively managed vehicle. And if you look at this next slide, where we see our historic performance, our share price performance, you can see why we think we're a good alternative for those who are looking for a conservative exposure to gold. On the left-hand side, you see our beta to the gold price of 1.6. So that's a strong leverage to the gold price. On the right-hand side, you can see over the long term, our share price performance has been very strong. We've beaten the gold price, we beat the GDX index since it was formed in 2006, and we've also beaten the S&P 500. So we think we are a very good long-term investment to get exposure to a very volatile commodity. Now in the next section, I'll talk about margins and dividend growth. And we do have a very high operating margin business. Our business model is unique. It's high margin, obviously, as I just said, but it's also very scalable. Our EBITDA margin in 2025 was 82%, very high, very strong. And our cash G&A was about 4% of revenue. Our costs are low and they're fixed. So cost inflation should not be something that poses a significant risk to our margins. And to further the point about efficiency, you can see on this slide how efficient we are as a company. When you think about our head count, we have 39 employees in the business. And for the scale of our business, that's a pretty small number. Today, our market cap is $16 billion, but we're suffering the downdraft in the gold equities as our peers and everybody else in the sector is. We've had a market cap as high as $25 billion in the past several months. So it's a very valuable business on a per employee basis. And you can compare us to any company in any sector and we actually compare very, very well compared to those very well-known companies. Now return of capital is a strategic objective for us, and it's one of the key things that we always talk about every year. And it's an attribute that makes us unique amongst other gold investments. We have paid a growing and sustainable dividend since 2000, and we've increased the dividend every year since 2001, and that's despite volatility in the gold price. We've increased our dividend now for 25 consecutive years, and we've paid out well over $1 billion of dividends to our shareholders. We're the only company in the GDX index that has paid an increasing dividend every year since that index was formed in 2006. And we're the only precious metals company in the S&P high-yield dividend aristocrat index. So that sets us apart from our peers as well as any other company that's in the precious metals sector. Now in this next section, I'm going to spend a few minutes just talking about our portfolio. Our portfolio is global and it's weighted towards lower risk and more mining-friendly jurisdictions. And the portfolio itself spans various stages of mining project development. We have over 360 assets in the portfolio today, about 80 of those are producing revenue and about 30 are in development. So that means that they're within several years of actually producing new revenue. And then beyond that, we have over 250 assets that are earlier stage. And organic growth within the portfolio comes from those earlier stage development, exploration and evaluation projects that advance through to production. Now our portfolio diversification -- having a diversified portfolio reduces single asset and counterparty risk. And that's a very important consideration when you think about us and our business model and compare us to our peers. Our commodity focus is gold. It always has been and it always will be. We have the highest gold revenue percentage of our large-cap peers, but we also have significant copper and silver revenue as well. So there is a bit of revenue diversification from other metals. We're geographically diverse, but North America is a bit of a focus for us based on where we found transactions and that is definitely the lion's share of the revenue comes from North America. And when you look at the assets specifically and you look at the diversification within the portfolio, on a non asset value basis, on the left-hand side, you can see that we've got the most diversified asset portfolio in our sector. 9 of our top 10 assets by net asset value are producing revenue today and expansion and extension projects are underway at 5 of these. So that's a pretty interesting mix of big assets within our portfolio. On the right-hand side, you can see our operators and our operators are best-in-class. These are -- you can look down this list of names and you'll see many large, well-capitalized and experienced companies. And more recently, with some of the transactions we've done, we've got at First Quantum. Rio Tinto and Glencore to this counterparty lesson. So this portfolio diversification, it reduces our exposure to single asset, operator and jurisdictional risks, and that's an important consideration for journalists and investors who they want exposure to our model and assets, but they don't want to spend time reviewing assets in detail. With us, you get a very broad diversified portfolio. So if there is an issue at an asset, it should not impact the value of our company as a whole because hopefully, there's a bit of put and take when it comes to asset performance. Now operating risk. This is an important factor when you think about our business model. And there are advantages of investing in the royalty model if you want gold exposure. Our model produces gold exposure with reduced risk. And this slide shows the different ways you can invest in gold and how we are positioned. So we provide exposure to gold, upside exposure to gold and optionality and a dividend. And we reduced the downside risk by having that diversified portfolio that I just talked about and also without having direct exposure to operating and capital costs. There are other ways you can invest in gold, you can be conservative and you can invest in physical gold, but you will never get more than the ounce that you buy from physical gold. You won't get upside except for price appreciation. And you certainly won't get a dividend. In fact, it will cost you to keep that gold somewhere safe. If you want to be more aggressive, you can buy equities in mining companies or exploration companies, and they'll certainly give you exposure to asset optionality. But with those investments, you're also getting exposure to operating at cost risks and inflation, and that could impact the margins and the value of the equity that you acquire. So there is a perception in the marketplace amongst some that our business model doesn't provide leverage to gold. But I think if you look over the long term, our financial results prove that point to be untrue. Now royalty and streamer margins are important to notice because they do expand with gold price. And producers and Royal Gold, we have very different cost structures, and our costs are low and they're fixed, so our margins should expand as metal prices increase, which is what you as an investor wants to see. Operators on the other hand, are -- their costs are often subject to inflation. So margins may not expand as quickly as gold prices run up or margins may actually compress depending on how strong inflation pressures may be. And you can see on this next slide, the differences in cost structure between ourselves and the average producer. Producers are exposed to inflation and the input costs that they use to run their operations. So labor costs, energy costs, other consumables that they need. Many of those things actually do increase when you see commodity prices increase as well so the gold price may increase, we may also see metal or steel consumable costs increase as well. So the -- that means that margins for operators may not expand. Our G&A costs, on the other hand, though, they're pretty steady year-on-year, they're salaries, services, office rents, things that don't move on a short-term basis as a result of the inflation pressures. And you need to remember that anything that impacts cost impacts margins. We haven't seen yet, on the operating side, the impact of the Iran war on operating costs. And I think you'll likely start seeing that in the next quarter probably in the next several weeks, this company started talking about their second quarter results. As energy prices increases, diesel cost increase, operator costs will increase. In the first quarter of this year, you didn't see that because the war hadn't been going on long enough for that really to show off. But I think you're going to start seeing that over the next quarter or 2 in operator costs, you should see our margins stay fairly consistent. Now I'll talk about our size and our positioning in our sector. And we are -- as I said at the beginning, we're -- we like to think of ourselves as being in a [indiscernible] position. We're large enough to compete, but we're also small enough to show growth. And our sector is built on relatively small transactions. Most transactions are smaller than about $300 million. And the average transaction size, if you go back to over history, is about $110 million. So we sit in a pretty interesting position. We have -- we're big enough to compete with the largest transactions against our largest peers. We have significant cash flow, we have access to capital as well and we did a $1 billion stream transaction last year on Kansanshi. So that should show you that we've got the ability to compete for those large transactions. Yes, we're also small enough to show growth. Small transaction can add meaningful value to us. Last year, the [indiscernible] transaction was a $200 million transaction. We expect that to show me if we'll growth to us when that operation begins production. We're not aiming to be the biggest. We prefer to be the best is how we think about it. And that goldilocks position that we sit in, it provides us a really good platform, we think, to execute our strategy of continuing to grow in gold. Now as I advertise at the beginning, I'm going to end with a comment on embedded growth and optionality. And so when you think about this, the first thing I should talk about is our capital allocation priority. And our successful growth really depends on being able to allocate capital successfully. Our strategy remains simple and consistent and it has been this way for decades. First thing we think about is reinvesting in the business using nondilutive financing. So we provide shareholders growth. Second is to maintain a strong balance sheet and access to liquidity and that's to make sure that we're always positioned for those new transactions that may come up quickly. And thirdly, we want to continue returning capital to shareholders. So we think this shows discipline to our shareholders. We think about them as a key allocation of our dollars as they come in. And then the next slide here, we talked a little bit about our framework. And we have to be flexible. If a framework provides guideposts, but we have to be flexible because market conditions change all the time. But our framework is designed to provide hopefully target double-digit returns on assets, any new investments we make, and show per share growth. We also want to repay debt quickly, and we also want to continue growing that dividend that I talked about. And more recently, in the first quarter of this year, we announced -- with those results, we announced that we had added 2 new tools to our toolbox when it comes to capital allocation. The first was a $600 million accordion facility on our revolving credit facility. This is uncommitted, but it does provide the potential for more liquidity if we see more large transactions to pop up. The second was the authorization by the Board of a $500 million share buyback. This wasn't -- it's not based on a formula, it's not based on specific levels, but it's a discretionary tool to use when we see the potential for large valuation disconnects between our equity and what we think is worth. So 2 additional tools that we added while we have the opportunity to do so, and those are now in place. I'll talk about our history of capital allocation, how we financed our growth accretively without significant equity dilution. And this slide shows what we've done over the past 25 years. You can see since 2000, we've had significant revenue and cash flow growth, but there are aspects of this growth that are really important to note. The first is G&A growth has not increased nearly as much as our revenue and cash flow. So that shows you that we don't need to add people when we add assets. Our business is very scalable. So it's an efficient, scalable business. Second is our revenue growth isn't dependent only on metal prices. Certainly, the gold price has been rising fairly consistently since the beginning of this 2000 has been fairly consistent year-on-year growth. It's been a great tailwind for us. But we've also been able to add volume to our portfolio, and we see organic growth come from within the portfolio as well that allows us to take advantage of that higher gold price. And the third thing I would say is we've been able to finance our growth mostly from internal sources without a significant rise in our share count. Now last year, with the Sandstorm transaction, we did issue almost 19 million new shares. But that was the first time we had issued equity since 2012. And even with those new shares added to our share count, we still have the lowest share count in the GDX index. So we want to avoid shareholder dilution and we want to provide per share growth to our shareholders. And hopefully, this chart gives a good indication of how we've managed to do that over the past 25 years. Now I'll talk for a moment about returns when it comes to transactions. And we aim for double-digit returns because as I said, capital allocation, we always want to reinvest in our business because that's the best source of value. That's the best way to grow value. And so we aim to get double-digit returns in any investment that we make, but we have to be patient to see those returns materialize. Exploration and production upside is very important. When we look at new investment opportunities, and it does take time for exploration potential, production upside to become clear in those assets when we make those investments. We do a lot of due diligence on new transaction opportunities, and we do take a very bottoms-up technical approach to asset reviews, and analysts on the sell side, they often don't have the same access to that information that we do. So street estimates on returns on announcement, they're often low and it may take years, in some cases, for upside clearer to the Street. And this slide really does illustrate that point. As time has passed, expected returns have increased with production expansions and [indiscernible] extensions, and that's driven largely by resource and reserve growth. And we don't have to pay for that. So that's how that return increases over time if assets see additional resources production or what have you, those assets become more valuable. We don't have to pay for that. So that's that additional -- that's where that additional return comes from and is added to our shareholders. And the next slide shows the same concept in a slightly different way. As time passes, we recover our investment from cash flow and any value that's added by the operators to the assets where we have those investments, that also increases the value of our future cash flow and our interest. And that is recognized by the Street in that NAV from this point forward estimate. So hopefully, what you'll see over time is that the cash flow contributed to -- from -- by Royal Gold in those assets dwarfed by the value of what we recover plus what is ahead of us from those assets. And the way this works, and it is pretty simple, really, it's this multiplier effect that any extension to mine life in an asset where we have an investment provides a double benefit to us. First of all, obviously, any extension to mine life or production means that there's just more production, more revenue to us, so that's a positive. But the second is anytime you got exposure -- mine lines extending, then you get additional exposure to the gold price. And the gold price is volatile. There's a lot of value in having exposure to that additional gold price volatility. And operators, they're always looking for ways to extend the asset lives within their portfolios because they're trying to capture incremental revenue and increase their returns as well on the invested capital when they build those mines in the first place. And in 2025, you can see we had 2 million meters of drilling. It was completed by our counterparties at the assets in our portfolio. So that shows you those operators are trying to invest further to extend the mine life of those assets. And we benefit from that extension simply because we have those interests and we don't have to pay any further to get exposure. And it's that optionality really, which is the key feature of our business model. And to provide some specifics around this, we think, as you can see on the slide, we've got a number of key catalysts today at assets that should provide some significant organic growth potential over time. And we have a significant pipeline of organic growth from new assets, and we see catalysts from within the portfolio extending into the next decade. So the most recent assets start producing was Back River. That started producing late last year, reached commercial production in October this year, should be the first full year of contributions from Back River. And then Platt Reef started milling ore in the fourth quarter of last year. Robertson should start production in 2027. This is at Portes complex. Beyond that, leading towards the last part of the decade, we should see new production from Hot Maden, Great Bear and Marinsa. And then after the start of the decade, we should start seeing new production from Mara at 4 miles to 2030. So this is a pretty enviable pipeline, but it doesn't include growth at some of the assets that are producing revenue today. So I mentioned at the beginning, Mount Milligan, there was my life extension there. That mine now goes to 2045 and potentially beyond. So that's a lot of value to Royal Gold. Another example is Khoemacau. There's an expansion underway at Khoemacau, and that should see about a 30% increase in silver deliveries to us starting around 2028. This is one of the best organic growth pipelines we think, in the industry, and that's reflected in our 5-year outlook that we provided in March. So I'll end with the standard comments on valuation. And I think what's unique for us right now is where we are. If you think about what I've just described, and if you look at what we've done recently, we are performing exceptionally well. We've got very strong cash flow from the portfolio. We've got excellent organic growth. We're executing on all of our priorities. However, the share price is not reflecting any of that or the strong gold price environment that we're in today. So if you look at us relative to our peers, and you look at price and net asset value, price to cash flow, and you can see that we're actually lagging quite significantly. Now we're working and doing our best to close this gap. We are -- the backdrop is not that positive for gold equities today, but we think we need to get our story out there. We're doing our very best to do that and to talk to as many people as possible to make sure they understand what we have done and how we see the business. And we're -- the messaging is simple. It's around our long-term production profile and the growth within that. So we've done an Investor Day at the end of March that was very much focused on that. We put out an asset handbook that includes all of the assets that are in the portfolio. So it should be very transparent where our revenue is coming from. And we're doing our best to make sure the market understands the scale and the growth potential of our portfolio. So hopefully, that will mean that we see some kind of a recognition in the marketplace and some kind of an improvement in the trading multiples. So I think with that, Noella, I've come to the end, I'll just wrap up by saying we've done what we think have been some very significant things to strengthen our position and to position ourselves for a continued strong gold price environment. We've added scale, diversification and growth to the portfolio. We have a strong balance sheet today, and we have significant cash flow. And we think we've got a long-term strategy that works. It certainly worked since we [indiscernible] the company and we expect it to continue to work from this point forward. So with that, I'll turn it back to you, Noella, for the Q&A session.
Noella Alexander-Young
analystThank you, Alastair, for that presentation. We'll now begin with the Q&A. Your first question is, as several senior gold producers are either acquiring or getting exposure to copper projects, do you feel the trend will continue? And is that something that could change the approach for royalty companies?
Alistair Baker
executiveI think it probably will continue that operators are looking for more copper. I think one of the characteristics of copper assets is they generally have longer mine lines than gold assets. So a lot of gold companies, they're looking to extend the duration of their portfolios, and if they can find copper assets and have the gold component, then it allows them to sneak a bunch of higher duration assets into their portfolio while still calling them or at least having some gold exposure in revenue. I don't think that's a new phenomenon. I think that's something that a lot of the gold companies have tried to do for a long time. Does it continue? Yes, I think it probably does. There's a lot of potential in the world when you see copper and gold together, and a lot of the gold companies are competing against the copper companies for those assets. I think for us, it's -- it creates an opportunity because everybody is looking for the same kinds of things. It's long-duration assets, copper certainly a focus. And so if we can help anybody acquire assets and stream noncore metals from those, whether it's silver or gold, then it creates an opportunity for us. I think if you look at some of the things we've done in the past, Khoemacau is a good example. That's a copper asset that had a 7% silver revenue component to it. We streamed 100% of the silver, and we actually helped the developer with the financing to actually build that mine. And so for them, they were able to keep exposure to the copper, which is what they wanted, and we were able to get the silver and pay use our lower cost of capital to create a bit of a valuation arbitrage to help them develop that asset and improve their returns. So anything -- any time you see anybody looking for large copper assets, if there's any kind of a precious metals component, that's the kind of opportunity that we see as being very attractive, and we're certainly very interested in getting involved in those. So I think it's a good thing for our business that's the focus of the industry.
Noella Alexander-Young
analystYour next question is which acquired assets have surpassed the upside since closing?
Alistair Baker
executiveWell, I think the -- if you go back long enough, you can see some of the assets that we've invested in done extremely well. as I said during the presentation, some of the more recent things that we've added to the portfolio take time for sites to become more evident in the market. But 1 example that I would point to is Wassa. That's an asset that we invested in 2015. At the time, we expected that asset to be finishing production around 2022. It's still producing today. So we've more than -- our dollars in, dollars out is about 2x at this point. And there is still a significant mine life ahead of it. So that is an example of a very good returning asset. It will take time for that potential to be seen and to be recognized by the market, but that's an example of something that's really done very well for us. We have other assets in the portfolio we've invested in decades ago that have done many multiples of the original acquisition price, Robinson in Nevada is a great example. Copper gold asset, has been operating for a long time. We've been been invested there for 25 years. And I think it's probably closing in on a 10x return on our original investment. But you have to see things over the long term to be able to make that statement. Some of the more recent acquisitions we've made, we think they're very good acquisitions, but you won't see that kind of return evident until some of the upsides that we identified during our due diligence until those are clear in the marketplace. But we've got a number of those in the portfolio.
Noella Alexander-Young
analystYour next question long-term growth projections, what are the long-term targets for net profit margins?
Alistair Baker
executiveWell, we don't target margins per se because we are influenced by the gold price. So any fluctuations to the gold price will certainly impact potentially margins. Hopefully, not significantly as I tried to make a point during our presentation because our G&A costs are so low. But what we do target is making sure that we've got assets in the portfolio that will continue to grow. So when we gave our 5-year guidance in March, that was based on gold equivalent ounce production. That's top line. So we -- at the time, we were expecting about a 17% increase from the midpoint of our current year guidance to the midpoint of that 5-year outlook, it's about a 17% growth. Margin should stay consistent over that time period. As I said, our G&A costs are relatively low, so they shouldn't be impacted too much by inflation. So hopefully, what you'll see is that 17% growth will be a proxy for what you're looking for in terms of earnings as well.
Noella Alexander-Young
analystNext, [indiscernible] is asking, how much of the expected value from recent transactions depends on reverse conversion or mine life extensions?
Alistair Baker
executiveSo the value -- when we price a transaction, what we're often doing is we're trying to make sure that we get a return on reserves as defined. And anything beyond that is an upside. Now we will have our own internal estimates of what those upsides could be and how that could impact returns. But we don't necessarily target -- we don't -- sorry, we don't disclose what those estimates are. As I said during the presentation, we target double-digit returns in everything we invest in. So a Street analysts may say, well, we think it's a 2% or 3% or 4% return today, but that will be based on what the Street can see when we do the analysis ourselves after doing due diligence, we may think that there's -- the base return is somewhere closer to double digits, and then hopefully, over time, as conversions or expansions or extensions occur that will go significantly north of that initial investment level. So that initial return level. So that's what we're targeting, and that's how we think about it. But it does take time, as I said, for that to become evident to the Street.
Noella Alexander-Young
analystNext viewer is asking, with the accordion feature potentially increasing the revolving facility to $2 billion, what is the maximum leverage Royal Gold would accept for a compelling acquisition?
Alistair Baker
executiveSo we typically -- what we said during the Investor Day that we did in March, as we talked about capital allocation is, we will, in extreme circumstances, look at going to, say, 3x net debt to EBITDA as the peak level of leverage. But we would want to get down from 3x to 2x within a reasonably quick period of time. So we're not afraid of using leverage to grow our business, but we will be conservative when it comes to using leverage. We never want to be in a position where we're helping somebody, an operator, get out of a -- help them strengthen their balance sheet. Yes, we weaken our balance sheet by doing a new transaction. We're careful about leverage where we're conservative. So that hopefully gives you a sense of how we think about it. We certainly wouldn't want to operate on a regular basis at 3x debt to EBITDA, but we think that would be a peak that we could see or get to, and if we can see ourselves getting down to 2x within a relatively period of time after that. Now you look at our portfolio and one of the advantages of the portfolio is as broad, it is diversified. There's a lot of cash flow coming in from the portfolio. So that does give us that additional confidence that we're not subject to single-asset interruption risk. If something didn't perform as planned. We've got the rest of the portfolio to continue providing the cash flow. So that makes us more comfortable when it comes to using leverage financial leverage for new transactions.
Noella Alexander-Young
analystNext, are there any royalties or streams that management believes the market is assigning little or no value to today, but could become meaningful contributors over the next decade?
Alistair Baker
executiveWe always think there's a lot of stuff in the portfolio that is relatively small that maybe on its own, you would think, oh, maybe that's not worth considering, but you start adding a number of these smaller together and they're actually pretty significant when you think about it that way. We have a lot of assets like that in the portfolio. As I said during the presentation, we have over 250 assets that are -- they're not in development, but they're in earlier stages of review by the operators. Some of the development assets we have in the portfolio as well, they're relatively small, and it may not be understood by the Street. And so that's -- I think those are sources of real upside that maybe not getting the recognition that they should be. We've got examples of assets in the portfolio that were very early stage, very low value that have come through that development cycle and actually are significant contributors of revenue today. And 2 of those are Australian examples within the last 3 or 4 years. We've seen revenue from Bellevue Gold. It's one of the highest grade underground mines in Australia. King of The Hills is another example. It's known by Vault Minerals. Those were dormant projects in our portfolio. There was 0 value assigned to those by the Street. But I think today, if you were to look at analyst estimates, they would all have some reasonable value assigned to Bellevue and king of the Hills because those assets are now raising revenue to us. So with the portfolio, the size of what we've got, there are more of those opportunities or more of that -- there's more of that potential within that portfolio just given the size of it.
Noella Alexander-Young
analystYour next question is, are there significant expansions in the works at your assets?
Alistair Baker
executiveThere are a number. I mentioned Khoemacau. MMG is doing a big expansion at Khoemacau, and we're expecting about a 30% increase in our silver deliveries from Khoemacau. I mentioned Mount Milligan. Although the production levels aren't expected to change in a material way, the mine life has been extended by 10 years and the operator is talking about potentially extending it beyond that. So that's another example of a significant expansion within the portfolio. I think if you were to think about Cortez, there are in 4 Mile. It's not necessarily the expansion of an existing mine. But it's an expansion of the complex itself. The 4 Mile project is fairly early stage greenfield exploration. That is part of the producing complex. So it's right next to producing mines, which should mean that permitting is faster, should access to labor and expertise and things like that is faster because they're in a pretty mature mining area. And that is something that has tremendous value, we think, and will add value to our portfolio when it starts producing. So there's a lot within our portfolio that has that expansion potential and evaluation potential as well.
Noella Alexander-Young
analystNext of you is wondering, if gold stayed flat, where would cash flow growth still come from?
Alistair Baker
executiveGold stayed flat, well, I don't think it's going to be from the expansion in new mines -- any new mines that come into production. Those will be the ones that provide that additional growth in cash flow, absent the gold price changing. So as I said during the presentation, one slide that shows you the different catalysts that we see from new mines. And the 5-year production outlook that we gave, as I said, it was -- it's about a 17% increase from midpoint this year to the midpoint of that 5-year outlook. So that should -- everything else equal, that should result in cash flow growth of a similar quantum to that 17%.
Noella Alexander-Young
analystNext, do you plan to buy back shares at these levels?
Alistair Baker
executiveSo when we announced the share buyback with our Q1 results, we said it would be a discretionary program. We're not going to make it formulaic. We're not going to link into specific metrics. It would be discretionary. And the thinking or the analysis that goes into that would be looking at the business development pipeline. We see ahead of ourselves. Are there opportunities? Is there debt on the balance sheet that needs to be repaid? And then, of course, the dividends, how are we planning on dealing with the dividends? Do we want to continue growing it. So there are other competing sources or uses for capital. As part of that, obviously, we'll look at valuation of where we trade on a relative to our peers. So it goes into -- there's a discretionary approach to thinking about how we may use the share buyback authorization that was granted by the Board. And we won't [indiscernible] so we've actually done something. So the plan is to, in any quarter if we were to use the share back, we would report on that in the coming -- at the end of that quarter, we report what we've done. So I won't comment on current valuation levels and the share buyback except to say that it's a discretionary program that is obviously subject to a number of different criteria.
Noella Alexander-Young
analystThis next question is kind of the 2 in 1. So the first part of the question is, your portfolio has become increasingly diversified with copper exposure. Where do you ultimately see the optimal mix between gold, silver and base metals? And are you seeking more copper exposure?
Alistair Baker
executiveSo the optimal mix, we don't really target the mix. We're happy with the portfolio as it is. I mean we're about 90% precious metals, gold is somewhere 75% to 80% on a fairly consistent basis. So we're very comfortable with where we are. We're not targeting changing that mix. That said, if something very attractive came in the door tomorrow that wasn't precious metals, yes, we're going to have to look at it and I would have to make makes sense within the context of portfolio. But occasionally, we do see copper assets come in that are attractive. And if they are good returning opportunities and there are good projects and good jurisdictions run by good people, we'll certainly have a look at those. We're not looking -- we're not proactively trying to diversify our revenue mix, but we will consider things that we understand. And we'll look at those within the context of other things that we're looking at. So if we are looking at a number of opportunities, we're always going to give priority to the precious metals opportunities, but we're not going to turn away attractive base metals opportunities. We'll have a look at those if it makes sense.
Noella Alexander-Young
analystWe're coming up on your last 2 questions here. The first question is, how frequently do you revise internal production assumptions when operators delay permitting or construction?
Alistair Baker
executiveWe do that on a regular basis. So we're always monitoring our portfolio, and we're always looking at changes to operator guidance or operator plans, and we'll make those adjustments pretty consistently. What we typically give guidance is once a year we'll give our guidance for the current year that we're in as well as now we'll give 5-year outlooks. And so any changes will be reflected in those numbers as we give those once a year. Now if there's something notable that happens at an asset that's worth disclosing, obviously, we would mention that during our regular quarterly disclosures. But generally speaking, when we look at asset changes from operators and tweaks the way that they may be looking at mine plans that would get reflected in our guidance is significant once a year.
Noella Alexander-Young
analystAnd lastly, viewer is asking, can you please explain why it is a better business case investing my money into Royal Gold and not into competitors like Franco-Nevada and Wheaton Precious Metals?
Alistair Baker
executiveWell, we think we have a number of unique attributes that that separate us from our peers. I think the diversification within the portfolio is obviously a big one. If you look at our peers, they've had issues with larger assets have made significant chunks of their value. So we have a -- we've mitigated risk by diversifying our portfolio. So I think that's an important distinguishing difference. I think another is we're not really relying on 1 or 2 projects to help us with growth. We see a number of assets within the portfolio that are going to add growth, we think, over the next several years. And so our growth isn't dependent on the success of 1 or 2 things. So I think that goes to portfolio diversification. So I think that's 1 point. I think the fact that we have such a high gold revenue percentage, that sets us apart from our peers as well. Some of our peers have other metals or other than oil and gas or other things in their portfolios that investors may not want exposure to through a gold royalty vehicle. So that's an important factor as well. I think the way we think about our dividend is a bit unique in the sector and the record that we've got of paying a dividend and increasing it every year or the past 25 years, I think that's unmatched. So hopefully, that is a distinguishing factor as well. Our share count is lower than our peers. I think that goes to the way that we funded our business. So we have typically, as I said during the presentation, relied on internal uses or internal sources of funds to grow our business without diluting shareholders. So that's another distinguishing factor. And then the final thing I would say, it's an interesting point is that we're a U.S. domiciled company in a sector that is underrepresented in the U.S. market. So there's a scarcity factor for U.S. investors who have U.S. mandates only. There are very many opportunities for them to invest in the precious metals companies. There's -- on the large account side, there's Newmont and then there's us. So if you want a gold exposure, Newmont is a mining company, a very different business model, then you've got us is that more conservative exposure. And that's very attractive to U.S. investors. And I think right now in the U.S. marketplace, we're not seeing a lot of luck for gold, and I think that's just based on a lot of different things that are happening. But when the U.S. marketplace does turn itself, its interest to gold, we tend to benefit very well as a result of that. And that's something our peers don't benefit from because they're Canadian. They're not U.S. dollar all companies.
Noella Alexander-Young
analystExcellent. Thank you very much, Alistair, for all of your insight today, and thank you to everyone who submitted questions. If you did not get a chance to submit your questions, you can reach out to the appropriate account manager here at Renmark. That concludes our presentation for today. But before we go, I will turn back the floor to Alistair for final remarks.
Alistair Baker
executiveWell, thanks very much. I really do appreciate everybody's time and attention today and the questions. And of course, if there's anything that I didn't address as intended through the question, please contact Renmark they will be happy to put us in touch directly happy how our conversation with you to clarify anything that I may have missed if there was a question that I didn't understand. So thanks very much. Enjoy the rest of your summer. I look forward to connecting as soon as we can. Take care.
Noella Alexander-Young
analystThank you, Alistair. And once again, this was Royal Gold trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol RGLD. Thank you to everyone in Houston and surrounding areas for joining us today. The playback of this Virtual Non-Deal Roadshow will be available on our website 24 to 48 hours after this presentation under the VMDR Library tab. Please stay tuned for other presentations in your area and see you next time.
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