Yeah.
No microphone.
Oh, so maybe just do it from the podium and I'll go from. Or do you want to hold on to? Sure. Perfect. Haytham is President and CEO. He's been in the industry for 30 years and half of that at Wheaton. So, lots of experience and became CEO this year.
Thanks, Matt.
Yeah, it's a real pleasure. So, want to start out, a couple of weeks ago, you hosted your investor day. I took away from that five main differentiating elements of your company. The team, the process, the returns, the growth, and the scale. And I thought I'd start out with a question on each of those topics. So first, the team. You were appointed CEO March this year. You've got 47 people in the company. Sounds like you're busier than ever. Lots of assets, regions, new deals to look at. Can you talk about how the team's handling the workload and what are your first impressions in the CEO role?
Sure. Thanks, Matt. Yes, I think the important thing to note is, I have been there for 15 years and helped build, along with the rest of the senior management team, the team that we have in place. We are now up to actually 48 people. We have added three people, all on the technical side, within the last month, that we have been looking for quite some time. The right people not just any people.
That is because there is a significant amount of opportunities to look at. It is probably double right now what we typically look at. Typically, we are at somewhere around 12 to 15 opportunities. We are probably closer to 20, 25 opportunities that we are looking at any given point in time right now. The team itself, it is a very well run organization that hires high performers that know what they have to do and do it.
There is not a lot of oversight required. Obviously, I ran the corporate development team before stepping in as President and CEO of the company, and I am still staying very involved in corporate development and ensuring that we continue along the same path.
That is great. I mean, it sounds extremely busy. Second differentiating factor is process. Wheaton wants the highest quality assets. Can you talk a bit about how the team evaluates assets, and have you seen any changes in the quality of assets in this market?
Sure. Our philosophy within Wheaton is to actually acquire the highest quality, lowest cost, longest life, in safe jurisdictions with strong partners. That has always been our strategy. What we are trying to do is create the foundation stock in any portfolio that provides the lowest risk in the entire precious metals space. I can tell you, when we are actually looking at a new opportunity, we start from the technical side. That is why the technical team is probably almost a third, if not slightly higher than that of our company. We take the entire drill hole database. We rebuild it. We come up with our own reserves and resources. We do the same thing on the engineering, using various benchmarking methods, et cetera. Then we vet that against the existing technical reports. What is important is that is just step one.
And just to figure out if we actually believe in the technical report and the quality and what they're planning on doing. The next step is we sit back and we say to ourselves, "What is the opportunity here? Is there an opportunity for expansions in throughput, grades, recoveries, improvements in efficiencies? Is there good exploration upside?" We do enter into life of mine agreements, so that's incredibly important to us as well. All that plays a significant portion of our evaluation. So once the technical team is done and the social science of it is done, looking at the communities and everything around it, the financial team takes over. They do their analysis as well, and the legal team steps in and tries to structure it in the most efficient way to provide our shareholders with the best security and the best structure that we can get.
I think that the team and the process ultimately drive this third differentiator, which is returns. So I think you have a return on invested capital of around 20% this year. There's a lot that goes into that. Can you talk about how do you attribute those returns across deal size, timing, structure, or just the quality of the assets?
Sure. We have had an IRR over the last 20 years of somewhere close to 20%. The ROIC that you mentioned is also close to 20% at this point in time. What's important in how we structure these transactions is we don't put up a lot of the capital until we're very, very close to actually construction. So the more de-risked the project is, that's when we feel comfortable putting up a lot of capital. Often what we do is we'll put up, let's say, 10% of the stream value up front to allow them to advance it through to the construction stage and the permitting stage. So when we put our capital in, it's the most de-risked amount of capital, and that immediately generates us cash flows in a much shorter timeframe. So that's one of the reasons why our return has actually been so strong.
Okay. On to the fourth differentiator, growth. You've got 50% organic growth by 2030. How confident are you that can be delivered, and how do you think about the sustainability of the growth?
That's a great question, and this is probably one of the most exciting times in the history of Wheaton because we are growing from 800,000 gold equivalent ounces up to 1.2 million gold equivalent ounces between now and 2030. I will say that is not just our expectation or our ambition. That is growth we are incredibly confident with. You look at what's driving that growth, we've got nine development projects, six of them which are already in construction. A couple of them have either already poured gold, haven't had commercial production yet, but have poured gold, are in the process of getting close to pouring gold. The last three are waiting for the final investment decisions, probably to come in the next three to six months. When we say we're going to get to 1.2 million ounces, that's just based on those.
What we haven't factored into that is the significant amount of organic growth we have on top of that. As an example, we've had a significant number of our partners look at growing their production past the levels that they've actually outlined in their current five year plans. To put it simply, Salobo, perfect example, one of our favorite opportunities for growth. They've looked at initially started at 12 million ton, one line. They've now put in three lines, and on the third line they're now putting in a coarse particle flotation circuit. That's going to improve the growth, our production, by at least 5%-10%. So that'll put us somewhere closer to 300,000 ounces. You look at Koné. Koné has done an incredible job of advancing that project. Just poured first gold, which we saw a couple of days ago.
What was nice about the stream that we provided them is we provided them the ability to continue to explore at the same time. So what they've found is additional higher grade material than was in the original plan. So now they're looking at, rather than have 300,000 ounces a year and dropping after that, they're looking at maintaining at least 300, probably, I would say, closer to 350,000-400,000 ounces a year. If I had to guess, I would probably say that's going to last for in excess of 10 years. You look at projects like Kurmuk, which is developing their project in Ethiopia. That project alone has the potential to It was designed to 6 million tons. They're talking about increasing that to 6.4.
We look at other opportunities like Hemlo, which we've recently helped fund, and they're looking at growing their production base well above the existing level. That's a mature asset that was starved for capital for quite some time. So that's going to be another way for them to grow. What we haven't factored in is additional growth that we've seen recently. Generation Mining, another good company, has recently raised the full funding needed to actually break ground and start construction of that project. You look at what's happening with Aris Mining and Toroparu, another example. They're completing a feasibility study, and if that feasibility study comes through, you could see additional growth. All these additional avenues of growth are not even into that 1.2 million number.
When we say 1.2 million gold equivalent ounces, I can tell you, we think that's a very conservative number and a very achievable number.
Hmm. Okay, the fifth differentiator I picked up from Investor Day is scale. Wheaton has traditionally invested around $1 billion a year in new streams. Cash flow now is closer to $3 billion a year. You've deployed about $5.5 billion in the last 12 months. The scale has really increased and the mega deal at Antamina is an interesting development. My question is, as we head into 2027, do you think we're entering the era of the mega deal? Do you like that idea? What could that mean for incremental returns from here?
Sure. Thank you for the question. I will say that, yeah, so far this year alone, just in 2026, we've committed $4.6 billion. You're right, in the last 12 months, it's been about $5.5 billion. This year has been a bit of anomaly. Typically, we've deployed anywhere from $800 million to $1 billion a year for the last decade. Obviously, with stronger cash flows, you're gonna have an ability to deploy additional capital. We have, in the past, quoted that we are entering an era of multi-billion dollar transactions. What is interesting, though, is those don't all happen in the same year. We currently have about $2.6 billion in capacity to deploy and every month we're adding another $250 million to that. We've got significant capacity to do a lot of these deals.
I will say, even Antamina, that took from our first discussion five years ago to when we actually pitched it again a year ago, to when we actually got the deal done. It wasn't a slow process. There's an education process that has to come for a lot of these larger, diversified companies that are now looking for ways to unlock value. That's one of the things that Antamina has done. I wouldn't say it's opened doors, but it's opened a lot of windows where people are now exploring and saying, "Is there a way for me to unlock value in my existing portfolio and help drive the continued growth of the organization?" That's what streaming is really designed to do. Looking forward, I do think there's going to be additional billion plus dollar transactions.
The majority of the stuff we're looking at is still, I would say, sub $500 million. I would say, I wouldn't be surprised to see a billion-dollar transaction at least once a year for the next 5 to 10 years.
Yes. Okay, maybe we can dive into a few of your cornerstone assets now. You did touch briefly on Salobo, but big part of the company. You've always pushing a number of initiatives to drive the potential of that asset. Can you talk about how the production profile evolves over the next few years?
Sure. Salobo is the largest copper asset in Brazil, and it has probably a reserve life, I think it's 40 to 50 years of reserves in front of it right now. When we first started this, they had built a 12 million ton line. We subsequently helped fund the second line and the third line, which are each 12 million tons. So they got up to 36 million tons. I mentioned briefly the coarse particle flotation circuit that they're putting in, which is going to add another 6 million tons onto the third line. There's also other improvements in efficiency that they're looking at for the first two lines. So just on that front alone, I do believe that we're going to probably be, from our share of the contribution, close to 300,000 ounces a year from Salobo alone going forward.
That additional coarse particle flotation will probably offset some of the lower grades that we're expecting to see as the asset continues to mature. Going past that, now you have to look at what the potential is thereafter. Is there a potential for a Salobo four? They haven't ruled it out yet but it's something that they will always look at. It's all more infrastructure constrained than anything else. Is there potential for an underground scenario after that? Yes, I would say there is. So Salobo is an asset that will probably continue on for the next, I would say at least the next 30 to 50 years. The one thing I'll also add in terms of Salobo is our largest contributor to our production.
It's about 37%, but with our growth profile that we have coming in between now and 2030, that's going to reduce Salobo to somewhere around 27%. Antamina will go up to about 18%, then we have all these new projects that are coming in that'll be somewhere between 4% and 5%. So, having two flagship assets, I think I'd say we have closer to six flagship assets in our organization that have the ability to continue to grow the company going forward. Those are the assets. When you've got 80% of your production coming from assets that fall in the lowest half of the cost curve, those are the assets that our partners will invest back into first in a rising commodity price environment or a declining commodity price environment. Those are the kind of assets we want in our portfolio.
You mentioned Antamina, so why don't we jump on that asset. What's the life you see for that asset? What infrastructure investments are required to secure the production profile there?
Sure. Antamina was the $4.3 billion deal, if anyone's uncertain what Matt's referring to there. I would say we've known Antamina since 2016. We entered into a first transaction with Glencore then. At that point in time, Antamina only had a 10 year reserve life, permitted life, that was based on permitting. Subsequent to that, they increased it by another 10 years. Now, the next 10 years, which is up to 2036, is tailings pond constrained. But they are currently looking at ways to continue to expand that, and we're fairly confident with our subsequent to our due diligence, that this asset is going to continue to go for 60 to 90 years. If you look at what's happened from the time we entered into it, they've replenished 95% of the reserves.
The measured and indicated category from this point going forward is drilled to the same confidence level as the proven and probable reserves. So we do see this, when you have four of the largest company in the world, looking at ways to continue to grow this asset, we see this asset continuing for quite some time.
Let's dive into a couple of the newer producing assets, cornerstone assets, Blackwater and Koné. What makes those cornerstone assets for Wheaton?
Sure. Blackwater is one of the ones we love to talk about. They are currently increasing, completing their first expansion from 6 to 8 million tons, then they are putting another mill circuit in that is going to take it to 21 million tons. They are going to be producing close to half a million ounces of gold a year, on average. I would say looking at what their next growth profile is, they recently acquired another project called Vista Gold, another company called Vista Gold. They are in the process of finalizing that. That is another one we have a royalty on with a ROFR on future streaming, future financing opportunities. That is going to be another project that is capable of adding another half a million ounces a year to their account. So Artemis is doing incredibly well as they continue to look for ways to grow.
The growth that will come from this next asset is timed very well. By the time they are finished their next expansion and adding that 13 million ton a year line in, they will have a team in place ready to go and build this asset in Australia. So they have done very well. Your second part of it was on Montage, and Montage is one of these opportunities that has continually outperformed. They have come in ahead of expectations in timing. They have come in on budget so far as far as we can see, and the exploration upside in the region has been second to none. The company has done an amazing job. As I have mentioned, I would not be surprised to see this company grow into the next intermediate-sized mining company going forward.
Then maybe in terms of future prospects, if you think about what your cornerstone asset list could look like in five or 10 years, are there any assets in the current portfolio that you would highlight as candidates to be on there?
There's a lot of different opportunities out there for us within our existing portfolio that could be as close to 3%-5% of our production. You look at projects like Toroparu, which we've had for quite some time now into an early deposit. That one could end up easily contributing a significant portion going forward once Aris Mining decides to move that forward. You look at Spring Valley, which we recently entered into a transaction with Waterton on that transaction. Again, located in a very safe jurisdiction with a strong development team, so we're very excited about that. You look at Santo Domingo, you look at Copper World, another project that is being run by Hudbay, which we expect probably a final FID here in the next three-six months. Another project that's going to contribute to our longer term our five-year profile.
All these projects don't even factor in the fact that we have a significant amount of cash flow that we continue to deploy on an annual basis still. That's just a few of them. I can continue on. We've got 47 different projects. Close to 30 will actually be up and running by 2030. That leaves us with another 17 mines or development projects and another 10 royalties on top of that that have provided us with ROFRs on future streams, and that's why we do those royalties.
Maybe one on capital allocation and the dividend growth. You've got a progressive dividend. Are you happy with the pace of growth? Is that something that you could see accelerating given the cash flow or stick with the formula for now?
As we continue to grow our company, as commodity prices continue to strengthen, obviously you're going to see our dividend increase. For the last few years, three years ago, we increased it by 3%. Last year, we increased it by 7%. This year alone, we increased it by 18%. We would expect our progressive dividend to continue to grow as we continue to actually recognize that organic growth that we have, but also as commodity prices continue to be strong going forward. We're a growth company. Our objective is to continue to deploy that capital accretively into high-quality assets, and then the second objective is to continue to grow that dividend.
Perfect. All right. Well, that brings us to time. Thank you very much, Haytham.
Thank you, Matt.