Franco-Nevada Corporation (TSX:FNV)
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Oct 2, 2026, 10:20 AM EST
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Mining Forum Americas 2026

Sep 29, 2026

Summary

A disciplined, flexible approach to royalty and streaming has driven strong returns and portfolio growth, with major assets like Cobre Panama, Antapaccay, and Detour poised for further expansion. Strategic financial backing of top teams and emerging assets underpins a robust five-year and long-term growth outlook.

Paul Brink
President and CEO, Franco-Nevada

Shing $50 billion. There are a lot of players that are in the royalty streaming space. We feel that we play the game differently from others. Some of the key things there, the first is we are owners. We own a lot of our stock, probably more than most of our peers. That gives us a particular focus. We are not just interested in making the company bigger for the sake of being big. We are interested in profitable growth. What we want to make sure is every single deal that we do gets our share price higher. The second is being flexible. Yes, royalty and streams are the core component of what we are trying to achieve. We are not a bank. We are not stuck with a cookie-cutter model. We are open to how we structure our deals.

Most of our conversations when we sit down with operators is to say, "How can we help you?" Our objective is, if we can make them successful, then we will be successful, and that has been the best way to grow our business. Speaking about that profitable growth, the key thing is not just buying assets, not just being a bigger company, but making sure when we invest a dollar, that we get a good return on capital. Very proud that our track record is typically, we do achieve the best return on capital. That has been the case, boosted by these fantastic gold and oil prices. The return on capital is looking even more attractive in the next couple of years. That has translated into our share price performance.

We show it on the chart here. It has been 18 years since we have been public. The compound average annual return on our stock is 18% per annum. To put that in perspective, it has outperformed all the benchmarks, the Nasdaq, the S&P 500. Gold itself has returned 9%. That is a super return. You can see the returns we have been able to deliver, about double what you have been able to achieve just through the gold price over that period. That is what you get by being exposed to that resource optionality. Our business has changed over the years. Many of you will be familiar with the original Franco-Nevada, where we are buying third-party royalties, mostly on gold assets through the 1980s and 1990s. That was a super successful business. We continue to do that.

Streaming has then become the second avenue of growth, and doing gold streams on big copper assets has really boosted the rate that we have been able to grow the company at, has been able to allow us to invest in some long-dated copper assets. In recent years, there has been another shift, another avenue that has opened up for our growth, and that has been positioning ourselves as a financial backer of strong teams. Rather than just being a stream or royalty, being one tranche of somebody's capital raise, we have said, Let's find people. Let's find really good operating teams, people who want to partner with us, Franco-Nevada.

Then we'll put our financial muscle behind them and try and differentiate them from their peers, differentiate them through the endorsement that our technical team brings in reviewing their assets, in investing in their assets, but also differentiate them in terms of having our financial strength behind them. That model has worked super well. Great examples of that have been with G Mining resources, one of the best mine-building teams in the gold industry. We followed that up with backing Tony Makuch and the Discovery team at Porcupine. Both been tremendous stories. The stocks are both 10 baggers since we made our investment. That has had the backdrop of strong gold price as a tailwind, but nonetheless, they have outperformed their peers handsomely, both are market darlings.

The next tranche of that, there are a few deals that we've done through this year. That has been with Orezone resources. We supported Patti Downey acquiring the Casa Berardi assets coming out of Hecla. We supported Richard Young and the i-80 team in recapitalizing that company so that they can advance the assets they have in Nevada. Then, probably most important of those deals is we decided a couple of years ago, how do we crack the code in Australia and convince Australian shareholders that royalty and streaming is a good way for Australian companies to be building their mines? Our approach was to say, same thing. We got to find a really good team that is going to make us look good. Let's put our financial muscle behind them.

If we can make them successful, hopefully, we can grow the idea of royalty and streaming in Australia. We did the deal with Minerals 260. The stock has doubled on the back of that. It's been very well-received. We're very proud that they were awarded the Developer of the Year at the Kalgoorlie conference this year. We've just done a second tranche financing with them. I think it really is getting some attention in the Australian markets, and I think it will open up a big opportunity for us. This is a brief snapshot of our growth outlook. We have got good growth over the next five years, but in particular, if and when Cobre Panama comes back online, that'll push our growth up to in the order of 45% growth over the next five years.

You'll see a couple of arrows on the slide. We can sustain that growth for the long term. There are three things that'll drive that. The first is we've got a number of large, longer-term options in our portfolio, I'll speak to them briefly, that will drive the next leg of that growth beyond our five-year growth. We've got an extremely large exploration portfolio that is attracting a huge amount of drilling capital right now. We also have roughly $4.5 billion in available capital in what is a very active market, so we will be adding more assets. Just briefly on those three things then that'll help us sustain that growth for the long term. This is a snapshot of the assets that are in our portfolio. These are the bigger ones. You can see in total, the annual contribution could boost our GEOs another 222,000 GEOs.

They're not all going to operate at the same time, but it's an indication of the amount of gas that's in the tank. To put that in perspective, we're roughly this year, about 550,000 GEOs. In five years' time, we'll be closer to 750. These assets alone can help push us close to 1 million oz of GEOs, if you look out over a 10-year timeframe. Second point then is our exploration portfolio. The incredible thing about this kind of market, where you've got strong gold prices, strong copper prices, is everybody is able to raise capital. There's been a huge capital infusion to the industry in the last year or two. What does that mean? It means so many operators are saying, "How do we expand our mills? How do we increase our production?" Everybody's got the drills turning, increasing the reserves and resources on their assets.

We've got the biggest royalty portfolio in the space. We've been a huge beneficiary of all that drilling activity. We're seeing green shoots all over the portfolio. Organic growth is going to be a big driver for us over the next period. The last point I made already, in terms of available capital, we're sitting north of $1 billion of cash. We've got very significant equity investments, those companies that have done so well for us, plus our debt capacity. We're extremely well-heeled, and we'll be participating in what is currently an extremely active pipeline for stream and royalty deals.

With that, I'm going to take a seat and take questions from Anita.

Moderator

Thank you. Thanks, Paul. Let's start with Cobre Panama. The government has allowed stockpile processing and set up a commission to look at the long-term future of the mine. What's your current base case scenario for how this situation resolves, and what's the timeframe that you expect that resolution?

Paul Brink
President and CEO, Franco-Nevada

The direction on travel on Cobre Panama is all positive. You'll be familiar, the government has, the Mulino government has taken various steps to advance towards making a decision on the reopening of the mine. That was the processing of the concentrates, restart of the power plant. Now they've sanctioned the restart of the mills so that First Quantum can process the existing stockpiles. First Quantum, at their low point, had 1,000 employees when the mine was in care and maintenance. They've now hired another 2,000 employees, so they're up to 3,000. That's relative to a full complement, which is between 6,000 and 7,000 employees. They've restarted one of the mill trains already, so they're able to operationalize. The government has completed the environmental review. They've put that out for comment. They've pulled together the Council of Ministers, as you mentioned, that will provide a recommendation to President Mulino.

And those ministers, in recent weeks and months, have been out consulting with the stakeholders. They've been in the local communities. They've been speaking to the unions. They've been speaking to the local suppliers. Every couple of weeks, you've seen a report that comes out that says, "Local community really wants to see a mine restart. Unions are really supportive of mine restart. Stakeholders are really pushing to say you need to restart the mine." I think the government is doing a good job of making the case in Panama for the benefits that the mine will bring. I am confident that they're doing everything they can to advance this to a mine restart.

In terms of timing, I think realistically where we are, you could see an announcement by the government this year on a decision to proceed. These processes can take longer, so that timeline could be extended, but I think it's realistic that we could get to that point.

Moderator

Y ou mentioned powerful organic growth in your pipeline. Over the next two-three years, which assets could be the biggest needle movers there?

Paul Brink
President and CEO, Franco-Nevada

The ones that will have the biggest impact are obviously the biggest assets. Cobre Panama, we've spoken about. Next up would be Antapaccay. On the Antapaccay concession, it's run a big copper mine. It's run by Glencore. There is another deposit, Coroccohuayco. It is almost the size of Antapaccay itself. It's actually higher grade than Antapaccay. They've been advancing that project for the last number of years. Glencore, it is the first of the likely projects that Glencore would pursue. They have said later this year, perhaps early next year, they would sanction a decision to build Coroccohuayco. That would be a big boost for us.

Next up is Candelaria, the also big copper gold asset run by Lundin Gold in Chile. It is principally an open pit, but also with an underground component. They are currently expanding the underground to increase the throughput from that. But also significantly earlier this year, they are now evaluating a deeper pushback on the pits at Candelaria that would extend the life of the pits. There also are discoveries on the concession of other open pittable resources, La Española and Portuguesa. They've now started speaking about those. Candelaria has many, many decades of life ahead of it. It continues to get better.

Then on the royalty front, the biggest of the royalties that we have is Detour. I'm sure many of you would have heard Agnico speak about it earlier on today. It's Canada's biggest deposit. When they bought it was about 30 million oz in resource, 650,000 oz of production a year. They've had great success with their exploration at depth, drilling out the strike extent as it goes deeper to the west. They've already started with the underground development. They'll add an underground component to that.

They've got more than 40 million oz in resource now. They have a plan that will take them to 1 million oz per year of production. And with the success that they're having on the underground, I wouldn't be surprised that they actually push that and that they, in time, exceed more than 1 million oz per year of production from Detour.

Moderator

And Côté?

Paul Brink
President and CEO, Franco-Nevada

Côté would add to that.

Moderator

Okay.

Paul Brink
President and CEO, Franco-Nevada

With Côté, the mine plan and the mill was sized on the original Côté deposit, roughly 10 million oz. They then discovered the Gosselin deposit. It is also another 10 million oz, so a total of 20 million. So that mill is clearly undersized. Renaud Adams, the CEO there, is undertaking technical studies. They need to expand that mill. In my mind, the right size for that mill [audio distortion] is probably close to double the size what they are currently at. They have pushed back the timing on the technical studies, I believe, so they can consider that bigger case. I think we will see a far greater output coming out of Côté in due course.

Moderator

Which are some of the smaller, lesser-known sort of hidden gems within the portfolio that you are most excited about?

Paul Brink
President and CEO, Franco-Nevada

T here are a few of them, and you probably, by the end of this, you will not remember all the names. There is only one thing that you have got to remember, and that is 10 million oz, because you are going to see this is a consistent theme. These are small royalties in our portfolio. Many of them are not valued by the analysts. But I will start with AurMac. AurMac is a deposit. It is in Yukon. It is owned by Banyan Gold. Currently, they have got roughly 7 million oz in resource at AurMac. They have two deposits, Airstrip and Powerline. They are drilling very aggressively on that. They have had great results from that drill program, in particular, in between the two deposits, where it is a swamp area that has not seen a lot of drilling before. I am confident they will fill that in. I think that deposit will soon reach the 10 million oz mark.

The next one I will speak about is Rogozna. Rogozna is a property. We have a royalty on it, obviously. It is in Serbia. The company is Strickland Metals. You are probably familiar in Serbia, there are some very big copper gold deposits. There is Bor, there is the Timok deposit, both of them owned by Zijin. Zijin is actually a strategic shareholder in Strickland Metals. They have gone over the last couple of years from zero. They now have 10 million GEOs in those copper gold deposits. They actually had to pull back on their drilling. They were asked by the government to do that ahead of the Serbian elections so that it was not a point of contention in the elections. I expect they will re-accelerate it. If you have not looked at that stock, you should.

And the third one that I will mention is a deposit called Volcan. It is in Chile. It was in the Hochschild group. They have now spun it off into a separate public company, Tiernan Gold. Tiernan is gearing up so that they can advance Volcan. Volcan is already 10 million oz in resource. They will be advancing their studies. I think putting that asset into a separate company that can now raise funds to advance it, at these gold prices, it is a very attractive project.

Moderator

Okay. Your financial backer strategy, you talked about that a little bit, and some of the success that you have had to date. Can you talk about other ones, up-and-coming ones that you think will pan out this year and next year?

Paul Brink
President and CEO, Franco-Nevada

I cannot tell you who the next ones are going to be. We obviously keep that information close at hand. As I spoke about through my slides, that strategy has worked super well for us. Is there more to come from those companies? Absolutely. The first one on the list is G Min. We had helped them finance the Tocantinzinho deposit. It is up and running. They had put out an exploration update recently. They got very nice drill intercepts beneath the pit. Tocantinzinho is getting even better. We will have a longer mine life. The next asset they are developing is Oko West. We unfortunately do not have a royalty on it. Following that build, the next asset that they have in their portfolio is Gurupi. Gurupi is also in Brazil. They are currently exploring it. It had a few million ounces of resource.

They are getting great results. In particular, what they have found is a parallel structure which is completely new. They are very excited about the drill results that they are getting on Gurupi. It is going to be a very big resource. The next of the companies there is Discovery. Of them, right now it is the one that has the most momentum. When we did that deal, we financed Discovery buying the Porcupine assets from Newmont there in Timmins. The asset is producing about 275,000 oz a year. Two underground mines, Hoyle and Borden, and one open pit, Pamour. The big option at the time is the mill that that all goes through is the Dome Mill, which actually sits by the old Dome Mine. The Dome Mine itself has a remaining resource of more than 10 million oz.

Their issue was the mill was full. They didn't have the ability to process that resource. They have unlocked that by buying the adjacent Kidd Creek mine from Glencore that was shut down, base metal mine. That Kidd Creek mill allows them now to process the ore from the other mines through the Kidd Creek mill. It'll ultimately free up the Dome Mill. They can now process 10 million oz from that Dome open pit. That's just the start of it. They've been drilling. They've had tremendous success right across the portfolio, but mostly at the Pamour open pit. Pamour today is, I think, roughly 3 million oz of total resource. They've had great success drilling Pamour, strike extent, both to the east and to the west. More important, they have found a parallel structure on Pamour that is to the north of the pit.

They'll put out a new resource perhaps later this year, maybe early next year. I think that they will hit 10 million oz at the Pamour pit. I think that's just on the current resource. They feel that this is an extremely large resource. To put it in context, you've got the biggest ore body, gold ore bodies in Canada. You've got Detour at 40 million oz. You've got Malartic and Côté, as we mentioned, that are both above 20 million oz. Tony and his team at Discovery feel that Pamour will ultimately rival some of those as one of the biggest deposits in Canada. So a very, very, very exciting story.

Moderator

Thank you very much. We're up on time. That was great.

Paul Brink
President and CEO, Franco-Nevada

Thank you, Anita.

Moderator

Thank you.

Paul Brink
President and CEO, Franco-Nevada

Thank you all.