TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Silver-stream company Silver Wheaton would be open to collaborating on a transaction with a gold royalty or gold-streaming company, CEO Peter Barnes commented on Tuesday. “I think there are actually opportunities to work with gold royalty companies, to do deals where there is byproduct silver and gold,” he said at the Denver Gold Forum. Silver Wheaton buys silver from producers on a long-term basis, at predetermined prices, and then sells the metal at the current spot price. Barnes said he expects the transaction announced last week with Barrick Gold will open doors to a lot more silver-streaming opportunities for Silver Wheaton. The company has agreed to pay Barrick $625-million over three years, plus $3,90/oz on delivery, for 25% of the life-of-mine silver output at Pascua-Lama, as well as 100% of silver produced at three other Barrick mines until the end of 2013, while Pascua-Lama is being built. “I think one of the byproducts of this Barrick deal is that it has truly validated the model,” he said. Silver Wheaton, which pioneered the 'streaming' model was created in 2004, with help from Canada's second-biggest gold-miner Goldcorp. Goldcorp has also sold several silver streams to the company, including on its giant Penasquito mine, in Mexico.

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