Sandstorm Gold Ltd. (formerly Sandstorm Resources) is a Canadian company that provides funding to mining companies in exchange for

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset or ...

, principally in the form of

net smelter return Net Smelter Return (NSR) is the net revenue that the owner of a mining property receives from the sale of the mine's metal/non metal products less transportation and refining costs. As a royalty it refers to the fraction of net smelter return that ...

s and

streams A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long, large stream ...

. The company focuses on

precious metal Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical elements of high Value (economics), economic value. Precious metals, particularly the noble metals, are more corrosion resistant and less reactivity (chemistry), chemically reac ...

s but did spin off Sandstorm Metals & Energy Ltd. in 2010 as a separate

TSX Venture Exchange The TSX Venture Exchange is a stock exchange in Canada. It is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta and Vancouver, British Columbia, with offices in Toronto and Montreal. All trading through the Exchange is done electronically, so the Exchange does n ...

-listed company to make volumetric production payment transactions in the

base metal A base metal is a common and inexpensive metal, as opposed to a precious metal such as gold or silver. In numismatics, coins often derived their value from the precious metal content; however, base metals have also been used in coins in the past ...

and

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geolog ...

sectors, then bought it back in 2014. Sandstorm Gold graduated from the TSX Venture Exchange to the

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; ) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the List of stock exchanges, 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in th ...

and began listing shares on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is the List of stock exchanges, largest stock excha ...

in 2012. On July 7th, 2025, it was announced that Royal Gold would acquire Sandstorm Gold for a price around $3.5 billion with the deal expected to close by the end of the year.

Business model

Franco-Nevada Franco-Nevada Corporation is a Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based, gold-focused royalty and streaming company with a diversified portfolio of cash-flow producing assets. It is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange. The ''Ol ...

, Wheaton Precious Metals and Osisko Gold Royalties, Sandstorm Gold makes financial investments in the mining industry in exchange for volumetric production payments or

in the forms of

s and precious metals streaming contracts. These contracts are made with companies involved in mineral exploration or mine development; as an alternative to debt financing or issuing additional shares, the mining company seeking capital funding may agree to a contract with the royalty company to pay a percentage of its future income or products from the mine. For example, in Q1 2017 Sandstorm acquired 22 new net smelter return royalties for US$1.9 million. The Company completed transactions with multiple junior mining companies including Kivalliq Energy, Evrim Resources, Tower Resources, Copper Fox Metals, Millrock Resources and Condor Resources.

Corporate history

The company was incorporated as Sandstorm Resources Ltd on March 23, 2007, and headquartered in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. Nolan Watson had been the

chief financial officer A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, ...

of Wheaton Precious Metals which had pioneered the use of volumetric production payments in the gold mining industry and, along with co-worker David Awram, sought to spin off that business model into a separate company. During its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

it raised CAD$200,000 in August 2007 with the shares being listed on the

at 20 cents per share. It raised over CAD$100 million in further public offerings throughout 2009-10. The company used the funds raised from the public stock offerings to negotiate the terms of the streaming contracts. In 2010, the company spun off Sandstorm Metals & Energy Ltd. to hold its

and

contracts, at the time it had interests in a copper mine and a natural gas project. Sandstorm Metals existed as a separate

-listed company, with Watson as CEO, until it was bought back by Sandstorm in 2014 after its first few investments, in coal and natural gas, proved unprofitable. In the meantime, Sandstorm Resources changed its name to Sandstorm Gold in February 2011. In 2012, after a 5:1 share consolidation, its shares graduated to the

where it raised a further CAD$150 million at $10 per share and became listed on

. In 2013, Sandstorm Gold acquired Premier Royalty, which was the royalty-only spin off company of Premier Gold, and in 2014 it acquired a Diavik Diamond stream from

Iamgold Iamgold Corporation (formerly Iamgold International African Mining Gold Corporation) is a Canadian company that owns and operates gold mining, gold mines in Burkina Faso and Canada. Headquartered in Toronto, the company was incorporated in 1990, ...

. Further acquisitions included Mariana Resources Ltd for their 30% interest in the Hot Maden gold-copper project in Artvin, Turkey.

References

External links

* {{Vancouver Corporations Companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange Companies based in Vancouver Financial services companies of Canada