Now what? Like Silver Wheaton Corp., Royal Gold acquires the right to purchase or receive gold and silver from miners in exchange for providing funding to develop their assets. Royal Gold holds a geographically diverse portfolio of streaming and royalty agreements for gold, silver, and base metals spanning six continents, giving it reserves of 74 million ounces of gold and 764 million ounces of silver. This leaves it with a far more diverse asset base than Silver Wheaton and greater exposure to gold; Silver Wheaton only has gold reserves of nine million ounces. By virtue of being a precious metals streamer, Royal Gold does not operate any mines or exploration assets, but rather provides the financing to those companies that do. This allows it to operate with significantly lower costs, though precious metals mining is a capital intensive activity. It also means that investors in Royal Gold are not exposed to the same degree of risk that they are exposed to when investing in gold and silver miners.