RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Sandstorm Gold not ruling out acquisitions, CEO saysAgreed about Sierra Pelada, I wasn't trying to dismiss the potential there. On the contrary, I would look for Sandstorm to take a majority stake and put it back on track to production. I don't think management is prepared to just sit on the asset for years and wait for the vultures to be done with it. However, that wouldn't cost very much at this point, so there may be other candidates in play.
I have mixed feelings about the prospect of acquisitions, because Sandstorm is supposed to be streaming company, not an owner, and taking over companies wholesale has the potential to compromise Sandstorm's relationship with existing or potential partners. But I'm sure the plan is to take over distressed projects (with huge untapped potential) and install a capable management team, not try to directly manage them. There are a lot of excellent projects out there that are only stalled out because they don't have management capable of the financial prowess or boldness necessary to move their projects forward economically. Too many of them are just waiting for the PoG to float all boats or looking to flip their properties for a quick profit.
BTW, not to nitpick, but I wouldn't call Colossus Watson's "one big criticism". Don't forget the wholesale failure of SM&E, which at one point was supposed to be a multi-billion dollar company, much bigger in fact than SG. I doubt anybody ever lost much sleep at BHP or RIO over that prospect. Fortunately, Watson has grown along with the company and is much less prone to that kind of boasting or arrogance.