Did You Miss Out on 65% Gains?

Readers of my Global Intelligence newsletter pocketed some money this week. A 65% gain on a company called Sandstorm Gold.

They’d held their shares for just six months, in that time racking up profits that were 2.7x gold’s 25% price lift so far this year.

I tell you that because these gold-related profits gold underscore the opportunities that exist all over the gold market these days, even as gold flirts with all-time highs.

That opportunity: To supercharge your returns on gold by investing on the periphery of the gold market.

Our story begins with frustration…

See, I’ve been working on my new Gold Masterclass—happening this Saturday, July 19—my first ever masterclass on gold. Too many people continue to send me emails or hit me up in private messages on Twitter/X asking me if gold is still a buy, and why it’s a buy when it’s already bouncing around near historic highs.

I figured maybe I should just build an all-encompassing Masterclass so that those interested in building gold exposure into their lives know what their options are… and which of those options are among the best (in my humble opinion).

As part of that Masterclass, I was aiming to tell attendees to snap up shares of Sandstorm.

It’s a fantastic company and it was still quite cheap, especially given all the gold production it was going to see in the next few years.

Alas, as I was building out the presentation, an alert popped up on my iPhone: Royal Gold to Acquire Sandstorm Gold Royalties…

The best laid plans of mice and Masterclass builders—vanished.

I suspected something like this was possible back in January, when I sent out the first issue of my Global Intelligence Letter for 2025. I titled that issue: “The Year of Gold.”

And with good reason. Well, reasons—plural—as I spelled out for readers of that issue:

1. Western debts have already passed the event horizon and we’re now in the waiting game until we see a full-on monetary crisis somewhere in the Western world (most likely the US).

2. Inflation is not done with us.

3. Geopolitical instability, which is set to increase.

Nothing on that list has changed.

Actually, the list is a bit longer now, given that tariffs are causing countries, even those that were once strong allies, to back away from America… which in turn has caused the US dollar start the year in the worst fashion since 1973, more than half a century ago—down 11% against a basket of other currencies.

I told Global Intel readers that I wanted to add more gold in our portfolio because “gold would clearly race higher” (it has indeed) and that Sandstorm was “the cheapest streamer, and a darn good company” that the market had misvalued.

And here we are today, Global Intel readers pocketing that 65% gain.

(Sidenote: In that same January issue, I also recommended a riskier play on gold, a very small so-called junior miner that had just launched production at its very first gold mine. Those shares are up more than 32%.)

But let me take a couple of steps back because I used word a few paragraphs up that might not be familiar… “streamer.”

Weird word to attach as a modifier to a gold company.

Sandstorm doesn’t own a single gold mine anywhere in the world. And yet 73,000 ounces of gold production will flow through its income statement this year.

That “production” is actually a stream of gold produced by other miners. As a so-called “gold streamer,” Sandstorm has invested in individual mines, putting shareholder capital to work helping mining companies build and operate mines. In return, streamers like Sandstorm collect either a share of the processed gold that flows from the mine, or a share of the cash profits that mine generates.

It’s a good business model. Takes away a lot of the risk of gold mining—such as building a mine, running a mine, the time and risk involved in permitting a mine…

Streamers face none of those costs and risks. They just drop a bit of money that the miners use to develop and build out the mine, and in return they own a piece of the production.

Better yet, if that particular mine ramps up production, or expands the boundaries of the mine, the streamer collects an even bigger stream, without having invested additional cash.

Kinda like a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket.

This is just one of the ways as an investor to supercharge your exposure to gold.

I mean, everyone needs to own physical gold, as I regularly point out. But I also want to own stocks with leveraged exposure to gold because those are going to goose your returns.

Sandstorm was a great example of that: gold rises 25%, and Sandstorm is up 65%.

Now… I have to find a substitute for Sandstorm so that I can give my Gold Masterclass attendees a new way to invest in the streamers. I think I’ve found a replacement, but it too is a clear takeover target because larger streamers are in a mood to lock in fatter streams. They know gold prices are going higher and the wider the stream of gold flowing through their financial statements, the plumper the income and the juicier the dividends.

If you want that pick… think about attending my Masterclass this week.

Now that Royal Gold has taken out Sandstorm, I just hope no other streamer sets it sights on my new recommendation before Masterclass attendees get the chance to buy it on the cheap!