Other

Aljustrel (Portugal) 

The Aljustrel copper-zinc-lead-silver mine (“Aljustrel”) is located in Portugal and is 100% owned by I’M SGPS, a private company who purchased the mine from Lundin Mining Corporation in early 2009. Due to the global economic crisis and the subsequent downturn in zinc prices, Zinc production at Aljustrel was suspended at the end of 2008. Upon I’M Group’s acquisition of Aljustrel, the company began development of copper rich zones and in late 2010 commenced production of copper-silver ores.

Silver Wheaton has the right to purchase 100% of the life of mine silver production from the Aljustrel mine site for the lesser of US$3.90 per ounce of silver (subject to an annual 1% inflationary adjustment after 3 years) or the prevailing market price per ounce of silver delivered. 

Campo Morado (Mexico) 

The Campo Morado property (“Campo Morado”) is owned and operated by Nyrstar, which purchased the mine from Farallon Mining Corp. (“Farallon”) in early 2011. The mine is located160 kilometers southwest of Mexico City and hosts one of the largest volcanogenic massive sulfide systems in Mexico, including the high-grade, zinc-rich G-9 polymetallic deposit. The G-9 deposit was advanced to production in less than four years and commercial production was declared on April 1, 2009. The mine is in the lowest quartile cost segment for zinc producers worldwide. Designed to run in excess of 2,000 tonnes per day, the mill utilizes conventional crushing, grinding and flotation to produce zinc, copper and lead concentrates.  

On May 13, 2008, Silver Wheaton entered into a silver purchase agreement with Farallon to purchase 75% of the life of mine payable silver produced by the Campo Morado property in Mexico for an upfront cash payment of US$80 million plus a payment of the lesser of US$3.90 (subject to a one percent annual adjustment starting in year four after production commences) and the prevailing market price per ounce of delivered silver. Silver Wheaton also has a right of first refusal over any future silver stream involving Farallon.

Keno Hill Project (Canada)

The Keno Hill project (“Keno Hill”), owned and operated by Alexco Resource Corp. (“Alexco”), is located in Yukon, Canada. Keno Hill is historically one of the highest-grade and most prolific silver producing districts in the world. From 1913 to 1989, the 240 square kilometre district, which comprises more than 30 historic mines, produced more than 217 million ounces of silver with average grades in excess of 40 ounces per tonne silver, 5% lead and 3% zinc (according to the Yukon Government's published Minfile database). These historical production grades would rank Keno Hill in the top 3% by grade of today's global silver producers.

Alexco commenced production of its silver-lead-zinc Bellekeno mine, located within the Keno Hill District (“District”), in the third quarter of 2010. The conventional flotation mill is ramping up to a planned production rate of 250 tonnes per day and the mine is anticipated to be a lower-cost producer employing primarily cut and fill mining methods. Development decisions on three more targets within the District are expected during 2012, with a goal of identifying 100 million ounces of silver in this prospective District and ramping up to more than 7 million ounces of annual silver production within the next decade.

On October 2, 2008, Silver Wheaton entered into a silver purchase agreement with Alexco to purchase 25% of the life-of-mine payable silver produced from the Keno Hill district for an upfront cash payment of US$50 million plus a payment equal to the lesser of US$3.90 (subject to a one percent annual adjustment starting in year four after the achievement of specific operating targets) and the prevailing market price per ounce of delivered silver.

Lagunas Norte Mine (Peru)

The Lagunas Norte gold-silver mine (“Lagunas Norte”) is 100% owned and operated by Barrick Gold Corporation (“Barrick”). The mine is located in north-central Peru, 175 kilometres north of Barrick’s Pierina mine. One of the largest greenfields gold discoveries in the last decade, Lagunas Norte is now one of the few gold mines in the world averaging production of approximately one million ounces a year, and is a low cost producer. The orebody is mined as an open pit, truck-and-shovel operation, at an average mining rate of 80,000 tonnes per day. Ore is crushed and then transported via truck to the leach pad, while run-of-mine ore is trucked directly to the leach pad. Gold and silver recovered from the leached ore is smelted into doré on-site and shipped to an outside refinery for processing into bullion.

Silver Wheaton has the right to purchase 100% of the payable silver production from the Lagunas Norte mine until the end of 2013 for a production payment of the lesser of US$3.90 and the prevailing market price for each ounce of silver delivered under the agreement. During 2014 and 2015, Silver Wheaton will continue to receive silver production from Lagunas Norte until Barrick satisfies the requirements of a Completion Guarantee on its Pascua-Lama project.

Los Filos (Mexico) 

The Los Filos gold-silver mine (“Los Filos”) is 100% owned and operated by Goldcorp Inc. (“Goldcorp”) and is located in the Nukay mining district of central Guerrero State in southern Mexico. Los Filos consists of two open pit mines (Los Filos and El Bermejal) and one underground mine, with common heap leach, wet plant and ancillary facilities to produce a final gold doré product on site. The open pit operation began commercial production in January 2008. Exploration continues to support the potential for significant new reserves in the current open-pit and underground operations as well as in the new 4P project adjacent to the Los Filos pit.  

Silver Wheaton has the right to purchase 100% of the payable silver production from the Los Filos mine until the end of 2029 for a production payment of the lesser of US$4.04 (subject to an inflationary adjustment) and the prevailing market price for each ounce of silver delivered under the agreement. 

Mineral Park Mine (United States)

Mercator Minerals Ltd. (“Mercator”) owns the Mineral Park mine (“Mineral Park”), an open pit copper-molybdenum-silver mine located in northwestern Arizona. Through a two-phase expansion program, which was completed in the third quarter of 2011, the mill is ramping up to its design throughput rate of 50,000 tons per day. Mineral Park is one of the largest copper-molybdenum milling operations in North America, with a mine life of 23 years. 

On March 17, 2008, Silver Wheaton entered into a silver purchase agreement with Mercator to purchase 100% of the life of mine payable silver produced at Mineral Park for an upfront cash payment of US$42 million plus a payment equal to the lesser of US$3.90 (subject to a 1% annual adjustment beginning three years after a minimum production level has been met) and the prevailing market price per ounce of silver delivered.

Navidad Project (Argentina)

Pan American Silver Corp. (‘Pan American’) owns the Navidad project (‘Navidad’), one of the largest undeveloped silver deposits in the world, and located in Chubut, Argentina. Navidad is made up of eight zones, seven of which should be amenable to mining in a series of open pits. The Loma de La Plata zone is one of the highest grade zones within the Navidad deposit and represents approximately 25% of the project’s measured and indicated silver resources. Metallurgical testing has indicated that this zone is receptive to conventional flotation processing with forecast silver recoveries of approximately 72% (see Pan American January 2011 preliminary economic assessment).     

On February 25, 2010, Silver Wheaton elected to convert its debenture with Pan American into an agreement to acquire an amount equal to 12.5% of the life of mine silver production from the Loma de La Plata zone of the Navidad project. Subject to finalizing the definitive terms of the agreement, Silver Wheaton will pay Pan American upfront cash payments totaling US$32.4 million plus a payment equal to the lesser of US$4.00 or the prevailing market price per ounce of silver delivered. The upfront payments will commence following the satisfaction of certain conditions, including receipt of all necessary permits to proceed with construction.

Neves-Corvo Mine (Portugal)

Lundin Mining Corporation (“Lundin Mining”) owns the underground Neves-Corvo copper-zinc-silver mine (“Neves Corvo”) located in Portugal. The mine has been a significant producer of copper since 1989, and in 2006 commenced treating zinc ores. Facilities consist of a copper plant with 2.5 mtpa processing capacity and a newly expanded zinc plant with 1 mtpa processing capacity. The processing of zinc-rich ores was suspended in November 2008 pending an improvement in zinc prices, and the zinc facility was converted to treat copper ore. Zinc production was restarted at a limited rate in 2010 and a new zinc expansion project was completed in July 2011. The expanded plant has the flexibility to process zinc or copper ores and is currently committed to copper production. Neves Corvo has demonstrated significant exploration upside, with discoveries such as the Lombador zinc-lead-silver deposit which lies immediately north of the existing Neves-Corvo deposits. Exploration in this area has also encountered significant copper mineralization. Lundin Mining is currently advancing a strategic study to evaluate options for accessing and extracting known resources, including those at Lombador. 

Silver Wheaton has the right to purchase 100% of the life of mine silver production from the entire Neves-Corvo mine site for the lesser of US$3.90 per ounce of silver (subject to an annual 1% inflationary adjustment after 3 years) or the prevailing market price per ounce of silver delivered.

Pierina Mine (Peru)

The Pierina mine (“Pierina”) is a low-cost producer of gold and silver and is located in the Andean Cordillera in north-central Peru. The mine is 100% owned and operated by Barrick. The ore body is mined as an open-pit, truck-and-loader operation. Ore is crushed and then transported by an overland conveyor to the leach pad area. Run-of-mine ore is trucked directly to a classic valley-fill type of leach pad.

Silver Wheaton has the right to purchase 100% of the payable silver production from the Pierina mine until the end of 2013 for a production payment of the lesser of US$3.90 and the prevailing market price for each ounce of silver delivered under the agreement. During 2014 and 2015, Silver Wheaton will continue to receive silver production from the Pierina mine until Barrick satisfies the requirements of a Completion Guarantee on its Pascua-Lama project.

Rosemont (United States)

The Rosemont Copper Project is a copper-molybdenum-silver porphyry deposit located in Pima County, Arizona. The project is owned by Augusta Resource Corporation (“Augusta”). Based on a positive Feasibility Study released in August 2007 and updated in January 2009, Augusta approved the project for development as a 75,000 ton per day low-cost open-pit mine with a sulfide concentrator and SX/EW plant to treat sulfide and oxide ore. The proposed Rosemont mine is expected to produce annually an average of 221 million pounds of copper, 4.7 million pounds of molybdenum, 2.4 million ounces of silver and up to 15 thousand ounces of gold over a greater than 20 year mine life. Concentrate production is forecast to commence in late 2013.

On February 11, 2010, Silver Wheaton agreed to pay upfront cash payments totaling US$230 million to acquire an amount equal to 100% of the life of mine payable silver and gold produced from Rosemont, for the lesser of US$3.90 per ounce of silver and US$450 per ounce of gold (both subject to an inflationary adjustment) or the prevailing market price per ounce of silver and gold delivered. The upfront payments will be made on an installment basis to partially fund construction of the mine and will commence once certain milestones are achieved, including the receipt of key operating permits.

Stratoni (Greece)

The Stratoni mine (“Stratoni”) is an underground lead-zinc-silver mine located approximately 4 km from the coastal town of Stratoni in northern Greece. The mine is 100% owned by Hellas Gold S.A., which is 95% owned by European Goldfields Limited and 5% owned by Aktor S.A., Greece's largest construction company. Stratoni has been in operation since September 2005 and produces high quality lead-silver and zinc concentrates. It has well-defined mineral reserves and exciting exploration upside as the orebody is open in all directions. The mine has a capacity of 1,200 tonnes per day and utilizes conventional drift-and-fill mining methods.

On April 23, 2007, Silver Wheaton entered into a silver purchase agreement with European Goldfields Limited and Hellas Gold S.A. to purchase 100% of the life of mine payable silver produced by Hellas Gold from the Stratoni mine for an upfront cash payment of US$57.5 million, plus a payment equal to the lesser of US$3.90 per ounce of silver (subject to a one percent annual adjustment beginning after three years) and the then prevailing market price per ounce of silver delivered. During the term of the contract, Silver Wheaton has a right of first refusal on any future sales of silver streams from any other mine owned by Hellas Gold or European Goldfields, including the Olympias project in northern Greece and the Certej project in Romania.

Veladero Mine (Argentina)

The Veladero gold-silver mine (“Veladero”), 100% owned and operated by Barrick, is located in the highly prospective Frontera District in the San Juan Province of Argentina, approximately 10km south of Barrick’s world-class Pascua-Lama project. At Veladero, a conventional open-pit operation, ore is crushed by a two-stage crushing process and then transported via trucks to the leach pad area. Run-of-mine ore is trucked directly to the valley-fill leach pad. 

Silver Wheaton has the right to purchase 100% of the payable silver production from Veladero, subject to a maximum of 8% of the contained silver, until the end of 2013 for a production payment of the lesser of US$3.90 and the prevailing market price for each ounce of silver delivered under the agreement. During 2014 and 2015, Silver Wheaton will continue to receive silver production from the Veladero mine until Barrick satisfies the requirements of a Completion Guarantee on its Pascua-Lama project.