What are we looking for?
Canadian royalty and streaming companies offering asset-light exposure to rising iron, gold and silver prices.
The screen
Iron ore, gold and silver have advanced in 2026, building on substantial gains in 2025. Gold has risen approximately 4 per cent year-to-date and more than 40 per cent year-over-year, supported by central bank buying, inflationary pressures from the Iran war, and a weaker U.S. dollar. Similarly, silver has gained roughly 5 per cent this year and more than doubled year-over-year, driven by industrial demand from solar panels and electronics, combined with limited supply. Other commodities such as iron ore have also risen recently, reflecting steady steel demand from China.
Royalty and streaming companies offer a distinct way to gain exposure to these commodities. Rather than operating mines themselves, they provide upfront capital to other operators in exchange for a percentage of future production or revenue. This capital-light structure avoids the high risks of developing and operating a mine, while simultaneously benefiting from high profit margins on any future production. Streaming agreements typically span the life of a mine, providing decades of cash flow from a single transaction, and most royalty companies hold dozens of agreements across multiple operators and jurisdictions.
Using FactSet’s screening tool, I identified Canadian royalty and streaming companies by applying the following criteria:
- traded on the S&P/TSX Composite
- market capitalization greater than $1-billion
- classified in the streaming and royalties subsector, according to FactSet
The five remaining companies were ranked according to four royalty-relevant metrics: price to earnings, price to net asset value, price to free cash flow and enterprise value to EBITDA.
What we found
Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corporation LIF-T, a Toronto-based royalty vehicle linked to the Iron Ore Co. of Canada (IOC), ranked first with a price-to-net-asset-value ratio of 0.9 times, well below the group average of 1.5 times, and also pays the highest dividend yield of 4.8 per cent. Labrador’s primary revenue comes from a 7-per-cent gross overriding royalty on IOC production, meaning that it receives 7 cents of every dollar of iron ore IOC sells before any operating costs are deducted, protecting its revenue from fluctuations in IOC’s cost of production. Moreover, IOC’s largest shareholder is Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest mining companies, providing financial and operational stability through commodity downturns. The discount to net asset value reflects Labrador’s single-asset concentration, but the combination of a high yield and Rio Tinto’s support offers a margin of safety for income-focused investors.
Triple Flag Precious Metals Corp. TFPM-T, a Toronto-based gold and silver streaming company, ranked second with a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.7 times. Triple Flag reported record first-quarter results on May 5, with revenue of US$147-million, up 79 per cent year-over-year, and a highly attractive adjusted EBITDA margin of 87 per cent. The company ended the quarter with US$144-million in cash, no debt, and over US$1.1-billion in available liquidity, giving it substantial capacity to acquire additional streams. Management has been actively utilizing that capacity, recently agreeing to fund US$84.3-million for the development of Evolution Mining’s new E44 deposit at the Northparkes mine in Australia, in exchange for guaranteed gold and silver deliveries.
The information in this article is not investment advice. The author assumes no liability for any consequence relating directly or indirectly to any action or inaction taken based on the information contained above.
Arjun Deiva, CFA, is an MBA Candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business.