Wheaton Precious Metals Corp on Friday said pretax profit dropped in its latest three-month period, despite a modest increase in revenue and overall production.

The Vancouver-based precious metals streaming company said pretax profit for the third quarter of 2023 fell 42% to $121.5 million, from $208.5 million the year before. Net earnings per share dropped 41% to 25.7 US cents from 43.5 cents.

Revenue however increased 2.0% to $223.1 million from $218.8 million.

Overall production increased 1.2% to 154,800 gold equivalent ounces from 153,025 ounces. Gold production increased 46% to 105,436 ounces and palladium production rose 24% to 4,006 ounces, but silver production fell 42% to 3,363 ounces while cobalt fell 19% to 183 pounds.

Wheaton sold 119,030 gold equivalent ounces during the quarter, down 12% from last year’s 135,179 ounces. Gold sales jumped 20% to 74,426 ounces, but silver sales fell 43% to 2,965 ounces.

Wheaton also declared a dividend of 15 cents per share for the quarter, unchanged from the same period last year.

The total cost of sales, including depletion, decreased 18% to $96.2 million. ‘Other’ expenses however surged to $10.7 million from $2.8 million. Gross margin increased 24% to $126.9 million.

Wheaton also reported a cash balance of $833.9 million at September 30, up from $696.1 million.

For the current year, Wheaton maintained its estimated attributable production guidance at a range of 600,000 to 660,000 gold equivalent ounces. However, it expects production to have a higher weighting towards gold, thanks to the Penasquito silver mine in Mexico being suspended between early June and mid-October due to a labour strike.

‘The importance of having a diversified portfolio of high-quality, low-cost assets was evidenced by Wheaton’s ability to deliver solid operating results in the quarter, despite the temporary suspension of one of our largest assets, which has since begun the safe ramp-up of operations,’ said Chief Executive Officer Randy Smallwood.

He added: ‘In this high interest rate environment, streaming continues to be one of the most competitive sources of capital, and our corporate development team remains exceptionally busy evaluating new opportunities.’

Wheaton Precious Metals shares rose 2.6% to 3,580.00 pence each in London on Friday morning.

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