And while the size of the two Sandstorms still doesn’t add up anywhere close to the multi-billion-dollar market caps of their nearest rivals such as Franco-Nevada Corp. and Royal Gold Inc., Watson and his colleagues are only getting started.
“You’d laugh if I told you, honestly, but I don’t think there is a practical ceiling to how big we can get,” Watson says. “It’s just a matter of educating the market how our business model works and then making smart acquisitions. By the nature of making good deals, we will get very large.”