PRECIOUS METALS

Wheaton meets 2021 guidance, forecasts strong 2022

Company produced 342,546oz in 2021

Petra Witowski
Wheaton meets 2021 guidance, forecasts strong 2022

Wheaton's president and chief executive officer Randy Smallwood said strong performances from Penasquito, Antamina and Constancia offset the challenges faced at some of the company's other mines, such as Salobo and Sudbury.

"Wheaton further diversified its asset base in 2021 by adding five additional streams on development assets, which will contribute to our steady organic growth over the next five years," he said.

"Given the strong tenure of our reserve and resource base, we are also pleased to present 10-year production guidance showing continued strength in our portfolio." 

Wheaton also updated its 2022 guidance to 350,000-380,000oz of gold production. This included weaker production from the Antamina, Voisey's Bay and 777 mines, which was expected to be offset by stronger production from Cinstancia, Salobo, Sudbury and Keno Hill.

The second half of the year should also be assisted by the initial start of the Salobo III mine expansion.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Jackie Przybylowski said in a note that it continued to rate Wheaton as "outperform" and had raised BMO's one-year target for Wheaton to US$51/share, up $1. She noted that the full-year production and sales figures had exceeded expectations, with 2022 production guidance also better than forecast, but still below consensus expectations.

"Full-year 2021 production and sales exceeded our and consensus expectations, while production guidance for 2022 is better than we had forecasted but below consensus expectations," she said.  "The startup of Vale's Salobo III mine expansion in H2 is expected to be a key driver for offsetting some weaker production elsewhere."

On February 7, Wheaton traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange at C$51.86/share, which was up 1.5% during the day. 

The company said it would provide full production and financial details when it announced its fourth-quarter 2021 and full-year results on Thursday March 10, 2022.

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