Welcome back to your Tuesday update, GoldBuzzers!

Another Day, Another Record 🚀

While Washington stays gridlocked and trade tensions simmer, gold just keeps doing what it does best: going up.

Three weeks into the government shutdown and still no resolution in sight - but hey, at least your gold portfolio is having a great year. Up 60% in 12 months and counting. Not bad for a "barbarous relic," eh?

Plus, I’ll be breaking down the mining company that's mastered the art of making money off gold without actually digging any holes. 84% margins will do that for you.

OK, let’s dive in.

Gold came storming back from Friday’s profit taking, surging almost 2.5% on Monday, hitting a fresh record high and closing around $4,355 per ounce as expectations of further Fed interest rate cuts and persistent safe-haven demand continued to propel our favourite shiny metal to new heights.

The US government shutdown remains in effect after three weeks with Senate votes repeatedly failing to advance funding bills, though Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng are scheduled to meet in Malaysia this week to resume trade discussions following last week's flare-up in tensions.

President Trump expressed optimism about the negotiations and described his previously threatened high tariffs on Chinese goods as "unsustainable" which eased some market concerns.

Over the past 12 months, bullion has surged nearly 60% marking one of its strongest rallies in decades as investors pile into the precious metal amid economic and geopolitical uncertainty.

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Mining for gold and silver can be a messy and dangerous business. But what if you could leverage all of the upside of mining with very little downside?

Welcome to the wonderful world of precious metals royalty and streaming companies.

The Big Picture: Companies like Royal Gold have basically hacked the mining industry. Imagine owning a cut of McDonald's sales without having to flip a single burger, pay for electricity, or deal with the ice cream machine being broken.

That's Royal Gold's business model in a nutshell. They write checks to finance mining companies and then sit back collecting gold and silver at bargain-basement prices while everyone else does the dirty work for them.

Royal Gold is one of the world's leading precious metals royalty and streaming companies, with a market capitalization of approximately $13 billion as of October 2025.

The company doesn’t have all its eggs in one basket, either. It’s extremely well diversified, owning a portfolio of 393 streams and royalties, with 80 revenue-producing assets and 47 in development across six continents.

While traditional miners get affected by inflation (labor costs up 15%, energy costs through the roof), Royal Gold is sitting pretty with fixed costs. When input costs rise, producers face margin compression. Royalties get full gold price upside with no cost inflation. It's like having a rent-controlled apartment in Manhattan while everyone else is paying market rates!

1. Margin Structure: Royal Gold maintains extraordinary operating margins of approximately 84-90%, compared to ~30% for traditional miners. This is because they avoid operational costs, capital expenditures, and cost inflation that plague mining operators.

2. Risk Mitigation: The company is insulated from operational challenges including labor disputes, equipment failures, regulatory changes at mine sites, and rising input costs for energy and materials.

3. Upside Participation: Despite limited operational exposure, Royal Gold benefits from exploration success, mine life extensions, and higher metal prices without additional capital investment.

Major Acquisition: Royal Gold has just acquired Sandstorm Gold for approximately $1 billion. This acquisition is projected to boost 2025 GEO production by 26% and create a stronger mid-tier royalty company.

Portfolio Expansion: The company secured several new streams and royalties in 2025:

The Good:

The "Meh":

Royal Gold competes primarily with Franco-Nevada (market cap ~$23 billion) and Wheaton Precious Metals (market cap ~$21 billion). Some key differentiators:

Royal Gold is basically the picks-and-shovels play for the modern gold rush, except the picks and shovels are financial agreements and the gold rush is very, very real. With governments printing money like it's going out of style and inflation refusing to die, Royal Gold offers a way to bet on monetary chaos without getting your hands dirty.

The Bottom Line: Royal Gold won't make you rich overnight, but in a market where preservation of capital is becoming as important as growth, it's the kind of boring-brilliant play that could look genius in hindsight. Plus, with an 84% margin business model and zero debt, they're basically running the Warren Buffett playbook in the mining sector.

That’s a wrap for Tuesday, folks. See you all on Thursday.

Before you go, please take a moment to rate today’s newsletter and tell us how we did.

Rick Adams
Founder, GoldBuzz
rick@goldbuzz.com