For the past year Silver Crown Royalties has been flirting with a tipping point of acceptance. Everyone knows (knew) it had a very promising business model focusing 100% on silver (“Ag”) royalties, (and no streaming). However, the Company is very small and has limited cash flow. Raising capital was difficult ahead of a tipping point.
Most precious metal royalty/streaming companies start out quite small and are very high risk due to constraints on capital and trust in management being able to; 1) see a lot of deal flow, 2) choose good projects, and 3) fund transactions without onerous debt and/or equity issuance.
Once management has several transactions under its belt, has shown meaningful growth, and has avoided bad outcomes (like resource nationalism canceling a mine), the company hits a tipping point –> having successfully passed through the riskiest phase of development.
On January 13th I believe the tipping point arrived as it was announced that well-known & respected strategic investor & junior mining advisor Michael Gentile invested in the Company and will help it thrive. It doesn’t hurt that the Ag price is +196% in the past year! That’s a triple…
Mr. Gentile is the largest shareholder in over 25 junior miners and sits on several company boards, as well as being a strategic advisor. In 2021 he co-founded Bastion Asset Management, a Montreal-based hedge fund focused on small to mid-cap equities in the U.S. & Canada managing over C$700M.
His deep capital markets experience & proven track record make him a highly sought-after figure in the junior mining space, where he actively supports value creation through exploration, development & long-term strategic investments.
He articulates company investment narratives very well and is frequently interviewed about his holdings. CEO Peter Bures, commented,
So, a soaring Ag price and a meaningful vote of confidence from a leading junior miner investor. Combined, a very powerful start to 2026. I recently spoke with CEO Bures as I was concerned that the Ag price would make securing new royalties much more expensive.
The opposite is true. His team is looking at about 15 potential deals right now, none likely to be announced this month or next, but perhaps in March. These opportunities span in production to earlier stage Ag mines/projects, and infrastructure from around the world.
The goal is 2-4 increasingly larger transactions in 2026. The reason deal flow remains strong is that Silver Crown typically targets Ag that’s such a small portion of a company’s economics that it can’t be monetized upfront unless through Silver Crown. There are no other Ag only royalty companies!
Yes, the cost of doing business is rising somewhat, but not nearly as much as the 190% gain in Ag! IRRs are still industry-leading. In addition, Silver Crown’s valuation is very attractive to the companies signing deals.
Remember, management can invest either cash, shares of Silver Crown, or a combination, into a portfolio company to secure the lion’s share of its Ag. Portfolio companies sometimes don’t even have Ag delineated in their resource estimates, but enough to make a meaningful difference for tiny Silver Crown.
To reiterate, the business model targets Ag only, and can accommodate transaction sizes that the vast majority of royalty/streaming companies won’t touch. This doesn’t necessarily mean riskier assets, just smaller ones. It assures that deal flow will remain robust for years to come.
I mentioned that management was looking at 15 opportunities, but the review process is extremely rigorous & prudent. The Company chooses less than 15% of the pre-screened assets it evaluates.
Given the relatively early stage of Silver Crown, investors today can be rewarded with truly spectacular growth for at least the next three years. Not only is the Ag price turbo-charging cash flow, but larger deals will spike the number of annual portfolio ounces (paid to Silver Crown in cash, not silver).
CEO Bures believes that although the Company is still largely unknown by investors and trading volume of its shares is low, that could easily change this year. Michael Gentile should help a lot in this regard. Importantly, Mr. Gentile could also spur new deal flow. He probably can earn finders’ fees for bringing in new business.
In speaking with Mr. Bures, he said that partnering with a much larger royalty/streaming company (it doesn’t have to be Franco or Wheaton, there are dozens) on Ag-only transactions is a near-to-medium term goal.
Quote from Mr. Gentile,
That would open the door to even more deal flow as the larger partners would take a part of the gold, while Silver Crown focused on a portion of the Ag.
Currently the Company has five royalty assets. As an example of one of the better ones, take PPX’s Igor Mine deal in which Silver Crown can net the cash equivalent of 56-112K troy ounces/yr. When this deal was signed, not the long ago, the Ag price was under $35/oz, today it’s $88!
For PPX alone, 56,000 ounces/yr x US$80/oz = C$6.2M. Compare that to the Company’s market cap of about C$30M. Most royalty/streaming companies are valued at 20x-25x forward revenue. Silver Crown is at 5x just a single royalty with more royalties coming.
If a tipping point has truly been reached, I believe Silver Crown’s trading volume and share price will do quite nicely, which will create a positive cycle of being able to do larger deals with less equity dilution, and portfolio companies gaining greater trust in management.
Readers are encouraged to take a closer look at Silver Crown. It could be a great name in 2026. It has substantial tailwinds and tremendous blue-sky potential. It’s not without risks, but those risks are meaningfully lower with Ag at $88 vs. Ag at $30!
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