Metalla Royalty & Streaming Ltd (NYSEAMERICAN:MTA) (CVE:MTA) continues to scale up its business and offers investors an "excellent" way to take part in the current gold and silver bull market.
So said the group's chief executive Brett Heath in a statement as the company posted its final results for the fiscal year to May 31, 2020.
READ: Metalla Royalty & Streaming increases loan facility to over C$32M to fund future acquisitions
Metalla's royalty portfolio continues to expand and it now holds 50 precious metal assets, compared to 43 back in April this year.
The period to end-May saw it buy a 2% NSR royalty on future gold production from part of the La Fortuna deposit and prospective ground forming at part of the NuevaUnión project in Chile - one of the largest undeveloped gold, silver, moly projects in the world.
It also consolidated its ownership on St Barbara's Fifteen Mile Stream Gold project (FMS) in Nova Scotia, through the acquisition of a 3% NSR on the Plenty deposit and Seloam Brook prospect for C$2 million.
The company also struck a deal with NuEnergy Gas Ltd to acquire an existing 2.5% NSR royalty on the northern and southern portions of Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd's famous operating Fosterville mine (Fosterville) in Queensland, Australia. This transaction is expected to close in October this year.
Notably, the year also saw the firm receive its first royalty payments on Pan American Silver Corp's (NASDAQ:PAAS) Cap-Oeste Sur East (COSE - where it holds a 1.5% NSR) and Joaquin (2% NSR) in Argentina. Both mines were scheduled to ramp up to commercial production during the first two calendar quarters of 2020 but have been delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Both mines resumed activity in May, with high-grade ore being stockpiled on-site. Pan American expects to begin hauling mined ores from COSE and Joaquin to the processing plant in the third quarter of 2020.
In other news, Monarch Gold (TSE:MQR) has outlined plans to re-start underground operations at the Beaufor mine in Val-d'Or, Quebec within 12-18 months. And on May 7 this year, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec invested C$5 million into the project to support its potential re-opening.
Metalla holds a 1% NSR on the Beaufor mine once Monarch has produced 100,000 ounces of gold from the asset.
Across the group, revenue from royalty and stream interests for the year came in at C$3.6 million, down from C$7.9 million in 2019, while the net loss was C$5.8 million versus a deficit of C$2.4 million in 2019.
Metalla paid C$1.6 million in dividends during the year to May 30, 2020. No dividends have been paid or declared for the months of June to August due to the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19), it said.
"2020 represented another major year of growth for Metalla's royalty portfolio and corporately with the NYSE listing," said Heath. "We are excited about the new opportunities in front of us and to see many of our assets having exploration success while being advanced toward production by our first-class counterparties."
Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com