Latest / Kitco MINING / LunR Royalties Sets Sights on the Next Tier of Streaming | Adam Lundin

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LunR Royalties Sets Sights on the Next Tier of Streaming | Adam Lundin · Kitco MINING

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Kitco Mining on-site coverage of Mining Forum Americas is presented by Metalla Royalty and Streaming.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Making a splash in the royalty and streaming space.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to Kitco Mining with me, Paul Harris, here at the 2026 Mining Forum Americas in Colorado Springs.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Joining me now is Adam Lundine, CEO of Luna Royalties.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Adam, welcome back to Kitco.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Paul.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Always good to see you.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Happy to be here.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh it's uh exciting times, exciting times.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Luna is well not even a year old as a public company.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: You launched late 2025, but you've rapidly become, I think, one of the go-to names in the most competitive space in the mining sector.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a cash-flowing silver stream on the Fruto del Norte mine in Ecuador and royalty interests in the Luna Wasi and Los Salados copper projects in Chile and Argentina.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Adam, it's uh it's been a very busy and dramatic and uh start to the company's life as a public company.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: What is, from your point of view, what has gone really well?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: What have we been really pleased by?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think just really pleased with like the team uh that we've been able to put together, like having Connor McKay and Trevor Dessaw and um you know bringing Vincent over.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: He used to be at Sandstorm, uh, and building out that that band strength, and then also being able to attract uh a very high-quality board that I can lean on for help with uh due diligence.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, having a Jamie Beck and a Voytek and Tara, people who are you know familiar with the royalty and streaming space, but also very active and seeing a lot of assets.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think being a very nimble, small management team, but having a very engaged board who can help, uh, just feel very fortunate to be able to put that that team together.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: I've definitely been very pleased with that.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think you made a very definite statement of intent uh when you brought in the the your your first deal, which was the 650 million you paid for the fruit to the naughty silver stream.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um in terms of a statement intent, can we expect to see more similar-sized deals from the Luna going forward?
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, definitely.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like we really want to focus on the precious metal space.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think that that allows you to have a very attractive multiple and uh and you know, kind of trade the best on a multiple perspective being on the precious metal side, so that would be our focus.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then, you know, we'll look at deals anywhere from 50 million up to you know one and a half billion, um, try and punch above our weight.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: But if I can get another cash-flowing uh stream within Lunar, I think give us the ability to increase our credit facility of 150 million we currently have today, and then allow us to go and look and at bigger deals.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think like look up to Franco and and Wheedon and the big guys, and obviously they have a big head start on us and done a phenomenal job growing those businesses, but um hopefully I I can catch them in in a quick time period, but also having to be discipline as well.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it'll be exciting but uh but tough to grow.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, cost of capital is the key success factor in the royalty and streaming space.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned the the 100 million RCF revolving credit facility with uh was it a 50 million accordion feature there.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um what would you say is the sort of sweet spot transaction for size for for Luna?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: I think like I think increasing you know our cash flow and doing that.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I think those will be on the bigger side of deals, and and that's very competitive.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know it's very exciting to see uh the Antamina deal get done, and I think that kind of opened the door to a lot of producing and and big companies.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, do we have a byproduct, you know, that we're not getting value for, that we can uh uh create value for shareholders?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think uh looking at those types of deals, cash flowing entities, similar with lending gold, like it's all focused on the gold production.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: People kind of like myself included didn't appreciate that silver, uh, but you're being valued on the gold.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so being able to unlock that silver value for shareholders and give those shareholders a piece of lunar, I think worked out very well and didn't take away from uh lending gold.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh I totally agree with you that the wheat and precious metals deal with BHP on uh what 33 and a third percent of Antamina really opened a lot of people's eyes as to the potential of streaming to be that uh an additional or alternative sort of finance uh for some of these large capex projects.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: As we mentioned, it's a very, very competitive space.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Does the cachet of the London name perhaps give you an edge when you're competing for deals?
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's helpful because um the family, like we can be there on the side.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like we want to if it's early stage, but you know, it's a royalty, and then if there's a field program and they want to continue on that, like happy to invest alongside Lunar from a family perspective.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and then also if it's a development project and they want a fully financed solution and Lunar is a component of that, I can come on the side with the family as well.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it gives us uh more ability uh to offer a bigger solution, having uh Lunar, and then if the family needs to be involved as well, uh we can do that.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the many things that uh makes wean and precious metals stand out is in addition to being able to write the big checks, they also co-invest in community investment with a number of the companies they invest in.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, the London group has the London Foundation that can fulfill that role as well, which again I think would be very attractive to a number of people.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's very helpful.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like the London Foundation uh helps us and can help us with due uh due diligence, and they have that that process to make sure you know you're doing a project that is benefiting the local communities and the host nation uh alongside you.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think the foundation is not only just uh helpful for for Lunar, but the rest of the of the London group.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: I had the good fortune to speak with London Gold CEO Jamie Beck last week at the Precious Motor Summit.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: We spoke about the enormous exploration upside at Fruto del Norte in Ecuador and some of the you know eye watering drill hits that he and his team are achieving there.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Does the stream that you have cover all of that upside as well?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, we cover all the obviously uh Fruta del Norte and then all the porphyry discoveries uh on that land package is all uh encapsulated within uh within the stream.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so we think uh, you know, it's 12.2 million ounces of of silver, and that's uh like the reserves of measure and indicated.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh once that is delivered, the 12.2 million ounces, which I think will be about 15 to 20 years, if that gets fast tracked, it's because they're getting one of these porphyries and and you're getting into more you know, bulk tonnage instead of being closer to 6,000 tons per day, you're probably you know getting closer to 100,000 tons per day.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: But all those porphyries have silver associated with it.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I think the production profile will grow.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: And if we step down to that 50% because they're delivering silver quicker, uh, we think the silver production will be, you know, north of potentially two million ounces, and so that 50% will be 1 million ounces to us.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and it is a step down, but you you're probably gonna have increased revenue.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Talk me through some of the mechanics of of the royal streaming space, Adam, because uh you know you went in some detail there about uh the silver stream you're gonna get from from London Gold and what it may or may not be over an extended period of time.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um your payback is gonna be over quite a uh an extended period of time, which is obviously very different to the payback um a typical investor expects when investing directly into a mining project.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um what were some of the mass or base case assumptions that uh you make when you're assessing an investment opportunity?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like I think if you're like the miner and you're looking at it, um, you know, you're gonna want a healthier IR than when you're looking at it on the streaming basis.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: But I think you're looking at that IR and you're not what's special about the space is you're not facing those that cost inflation, right?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: You're just you're just taking the revenue and the miner has to deal with that cost inflation, and so you're gonna need a healthier IR than as if you were a streaming or royalty company, and so you're willing to look at you know smaller IRRs but more stability, and I think it's very important that you're looking at long life assets to give you that big optionality.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: The transactions, Luna's transactions so far have been with other London group companies.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: What steps um have you taken to perhaps establish arm's length decision making and economics to protect Luna's uh minority shareholders?
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, for sure.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like when we wanted to set up this this vehicle, um like we had the the idea was from Trevor Desaw and it was originally at Philo.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Could we spin out a royalty to shareholders?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: But obviously we marched down the path, and I think we did a great transaction with BHP and Londine mining, and then you know, looking at NGX and their earlier stage assets, could we give a royalty to shareholders that wasn't gonna encumber uh the assets of NGX?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: And we thought uh we could, and so that's what we did.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: We spun that out to shareholders, and then you know, wanting cash flow and looking at lending gold and that silver production, and I think that was a bit overlooked as silver production.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it was a small, it's a small component of their business, and it's really about the gold production, but giving that to shareholders made a lot of sense.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so it happened to be obviously two lending group companies, but looking outside, and of course, like if there's any conflicts with management or board, you were you recuse yourself from that situation and and the independents have to go and cut the deal, and then also uh making sure you have those uh independent valuations and independent committees and uh making sure you get those fairness opinions and making sure it's the right deal for shareholders.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the the proving is how you're gonna how you trade on announcement.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Adam, if if you permit me to be a little bit cheeky, um you you're a director or an executive of across most of the the landing uh companies.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're sort of doing transactions between them, basically you've got no work to do.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: You can recuse yourself from all the work.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think and the teams like fortunate to work with such good people, and I think you know, I they do a heavy lift, right?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta give the the credit to the teams.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think like there's concepts and then there's ideas, and if you're conflicted, you're recused, but everybody has to believe in the transaction you're doing.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now um you've got some outstanding assets.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what is the plan to grow those?
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: And will you bring in royalties and streams from non-lunding companies?
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, most definitely.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know, look across the whole the whole playing field.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, as you said, Paul, like it is a competitive space, so I think, you know, especially like looking at that clever transaction with Antamina and BHP, it's kind of analyzing assets that have byproducts that are maybe overlooked at some of these big producing operations and just say, okay, maybe there's not a need for to further strengthen the balance sheet of some of these companies, but hey, if if you need to do a deal and you do want to, you know, stream off a byproduct, we're here.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: But uh obviously it's uh it's on uh their their timeline.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um royalty companies enjoy some of the lowest costs of capital in the mining space.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Is that potentially something the broader London group can leverage to when they need capital for developments?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, for example, fireweed metals at a certain point in time, London mining vacuno at a certain point in time.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think we'll be there, and I think you know, any development company in the group or outside the group, uh, you want to be that partner.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone will run a competitive process, and uh, you know, you gotta make sure you're at the table.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Looking broad more broadly at the space, I think it'd be fair to say that many royalty companies have destroyed value by issuing highly rated shares to buy low return assets simply to increase their scale.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: What metrics do you prioritize at Lunar to when you're considering deals?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what are the metrics that really add value for you?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think what adds value to us is you know where I want to get to is be able to provide that fully financed solution for for a development company.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so we cost the capital, we're gonna have to increase our credit facility and be able to do that, we're gonna have to increase our cash flow.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think at Lunar, you know, the do-nothing scenario, I think FDN will will continue to grow to grow.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think Lunawasi and Los Alatos uh will come online in the future.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think you know, with the Lunawasi, I'd say on an annualized run rate, FDN should provide$25 to$30 million in revenue.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think Lunawasi and Los Alatos, you know, have those similar metrics.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's just about getting those online.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think sitting still here, I think looking into the future, you know, that can triple our current cash flows, but uh not going to be idle.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like we're actively looking at a at a bunch of deals uh and a bunch of processes, um trying to stay disciplined, but also not putting ourselves too much in a box where we're not don't have the ability to grow the business.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's talk a little bit more about Lunawasi and Los Alados.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a 1% NSR and Lunawasi, is it 1.38% NSR and Los Salados?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um what are the sort of key milestones or what are the milestones before you can expect to see sort of some cash flow coming in from those?
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think Lunowasi obviously a you know tremendous discovery that uh Voytec and Bob and the team at NGX has made.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um they know the region uh very well.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: They're responsible for for building out in uh uh Vicunia, but I think the key milestones are there.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Continue to drill Lunowasi, come out with uh with your studies, uh you know, understand what it's gonna take to get that into production.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's really, you know, drilling, doing the engineering work, uh coming up with the timelines, uh, the capex and schedule to get that into production.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then I think at the Los Alato side, you know, having Lendine mining come in and acquire JX nippons 31%, uh, and having Caseronis, you know, 15 kilometers away, uh, start to analyze that and see does that make sense to incorporate?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Are you gonna build your own facility or are you gonna truck, convey, or or pipe that over to Caseronis?
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that works uh getting kicked off, and it'll be exciting to see what lending mining thinks best and NGX to move Los Lados forward.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: I I watched the um the investor day that uh NGX WatchTech and Bob did uh you know just a couple of weeks ago.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Fascinating, obviously go into a lot of detail about Luna Wasi and Los Helados, but they also spoke about the the spin-off of the the the gold company further to the north in Argentina, which is the eastern extension of the Maricunga district.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um early days, yeah, not a lot of detail is available on that, but is is that something that Luna's gonna get involved with in terms of perhaps providing some initial capital for that in its exchange for having a royalty over that area?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think like Valiente and uh getting back and having a pure play expiration vehicle, being in Catamarca, you know, have a big history in Catamarca with Baja de Alambera being there, uh excited uh for you know that expiration package to be you know liberated and and and continue to explore.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think the Maricunga Belt is uh a very prolific belt and has a lot of uh production on the Chilean side, and I think Argentina uh can get there.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so again, like not actively looking to sell a royalty at Valiente, but again, Lunar can do the work and say, okay, if you need capital, this is what we can provide in exchange for royalty, and it's the decision for Valiente management and board when it gets up and running to decide, okay, do we just do plain vanilla equity, or is it better for shareholders to to do a royalty uh to to increase the cash to go out and further explore?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: In mining finance, it's typical to uh to see banks syndicate loans amongst several different entities.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: You don't really see that in the royalty space, but with uh some of the the ticket items getting bigger and bigger, will we eventually see royalty deals syndicated amongst several companies?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's definitely a potential.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like um we teamed up with uh with Tether when we took a stake in Bersimet and very happy with that.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I think you know, obviously doing deals with Wheaton and Franco and even Orion in the past, um we all want to provide that that fully financed solution.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: If it's a big deal and we need a team with uh another royalty player, uh we don't we're not gonna shy away against uh shy away from that.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Looking ahead into the future, Adam, five years from now, what do you think, or how would you define success for Lunar Royalties?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think yeah, I think success is is you you know your scoreboard, like shareholder returns, like how much are are you delivering for for your shareholders?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think if I can continue to grow the business, like it's one thing, you know, growing market cap, but you want to make sure your your share price is increasing well.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: But if success, if I can add further cash flow to the business, uh and also like if there's you know unique near-term cash flowing things where we can get a royalty on.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um but I'll be excited.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to see us continue to grow.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Closing off, Adam, uh, we we've we've covered quite a uh we had quite a broad conversation about the company and its assets.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um looking forward again, um, what are some of the sort of key catalysts that our viewers can watch out for from lunar royalties over the next 12 to 18 months?
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think it's interesting being on that streaming and royalty space because you know you're not in charge of the assets that you have exposure to.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think a lot of that key success is to is tied to the companies where you do have that exposure.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think like the catalysts are seeing NGX uh move forward their projects, uh, getting those into cash flow, and then also FDN continuing, they'll continue to have further exploration success are and continue to grow throughput.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think you'll see catalysts and milestones from those companies that will uh in return be catalysts for for Lunar.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then I think we're one of the only royalty and streaming companies not listed in the US.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think we needed to analyze that to see if it makes sense as well.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, the royalty and streaming companies do tend to be slow, slow, fast, slow, slow.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Adam, it's been a pleasure speaking with you.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much for joining me today.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Paul.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Always a pleasure, happy to be here.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we have a lot more to come from the 2026 Mining Forum Americas here in Colorado Springs.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: So stay tuned and hit that subscribe button.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Paul Harris, and this is Kitco Mining.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: Kitco Mining on site coverage of Mining Forum Americas is presented by Metalla Royalty and streaming.