Nations Royalty buys and pools mining royalty and impact benefit agreement (IBA) payments owned by First Nations. Its founding portfolio, contributed by the Nisga’a Nation, covers five interests tied to BC’s Golden Triangle and northern BC mining region: Brucejack (Newmont), KSM (Seabridge Gold), Premier and Red Mountain (Cambria Gold Mines), and Kitsault (New Moly). In this conversation, I asked the CEO how these unusual mineral-tax-linked payments work, the company’s cash position, and progress toward signing new Indigenous partnerships.

TL;DR

Only one of the five assets, Brucejack, is currently paying: C$2.2 million in royalty revenue last quarter (about C$8.8 million annualized) against roughly C$3.3 million a year in overhead, so the company says it’s profitable and will be free cash flow positive once that gold-silver mine’s payments are received. Nations Royalty has about C$17 million in cash, last raised C$15 million in January 2026 at C$1.60 a share with a half warrant at C$2.25, and the Nisga’a Nation still owns 72% of the stock and hasn’t sold a share. CEO Pattenden said the single biggest catalyst for a re-rating would be announcing new partnerships with other First Nations, and he’s hoping to land at least one by the end of 2026, though he stressed that timing depends on each nation’s own internal process and isn’t fully in his control. KSM, by far the largest asset in the portfolio, still needs Seabridge to land a construction partner before it goes anywhere, and Pattenden’s own rough guide puts KSM production around 2031-2032.

What have they done for shareholders lately?

Brucejack moved into BC’s higher 13% net revenue mineral tax bracket, which lifted the royalty payment Nations Royalty collects; last quarter’s C$2.2 million in revenue was described as a step up from prior quarters. The company closed a C$15 million bought-deal financing in January 2026, which Pattenden called the raise that fully shored up the balance sheet. They’ve added a new CFO and a new director of investor relations. On the deal-sourcing side, Pattenden said the company is in active discussions with First Nations across BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, and is currently working on roughly ten IBA negotiations or renegotiations for nations free of charge, as a way of building trust ahead of potential royalty partnerships. No new royalty partnership beyond the original Nisga’a portfolio has been announced yet.

How much money do they have and what are they spending it on?

Nations Royalty had about C$16 million in cash at last quarter end, plus roughly C$1 million more received afterward, for about C$17 million total. Annual G&A runs around C$3.3 million. The company’s IPO in February 2024 raised C$10 million at C$0.90 a share (with an earlier founders’ round at C$0.04), and its most recent raise was the C$15 million bought deal in January 2026 at C$1.60 a share with a half warrant priced at C$2.25 over three years. Pattenden said he isn’t planning to raise money just to boost trading liquidity, only if a future partnership needs a cash component alongside stock. He estimated that even in a hypothetical worst case where Brucejack paid nothing, the current cash alone would fund G&A for about five years.

Upcoming catalysts

Technical: an updated mine plan or feasibility study from Cambria Gold Mines for Premier and Red Mountain, which Pattenden said had been publicly guided toward the end of 2026 but could slip into early 2027; and, further out, a new KSM technical study once Seabridge Gold secures a construction partner, which could also bring updated BC mineral tax disclosure.

Operational: more quarters of Brucejack payments under the new, higher BC mineral tax tier, which Pattenden said will help investors model the payment trend with more data than the single quarter reported so far.

Corporate: announcement of a new First Nations partnership, which Pattenden called the company’s biggest potential re-rating event; he said he’s hoping to get one done by year-end 2026 but described that timing as fluid rather than firm.

Risks

The stock is thinly traded, averaging under C$100,000 a day, which Pattenden acknowledged is a common objection from institutional investors. Revenue is concentrated entirely in Brucejack until Cambria, KSM or Kitsault begin paying, and those are years away. Cambria’s restart is conservatively assumed for 2028 with payments starting shortly after, while KSM and Kitsault aren’t expected to contribute before the early 2030s, and Pattenden was clear all of that timing could move. The exact percentage of BC mineral tax Nations Royalty collects from Brucejack is confidential under Newmont’s terms, which limits how precisely outsiders can model that payment. The Nisga’a Nation’s 72% ownership is under an escrow release schedule and hasn’t been sold down, but remains a large concentrated holding whose future decisions are outside the company’s control. And new partnerships depend on the pace of each First Nation’s own governance and community consultation process, which Pattenden said can add months to a timeline with little notice.

Nations Royalty CEO Interview

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