Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. declared a third-quarter dividend of 9 U.S. cents per share, representing a 29% increase on a yearly basis, after a nearly fivefold jump in its second-quarter earnings.

Net earnings came in at US$318.1 million, or 72 cents per share, soaring 370.5% from US$67.6 million, or 15 cents per share, booked in the prior-year period.

The company said Aug. 14 that the result included a US$246 million gain on the disposal of the San Dimas silver stream.

Wheaton Precious also recorded US$212.4 million in revenues from the sale of 6.0 million ounces of silver and 87,140 ounces of gold. This represents a 6.4% increase from the US$199.7 million of revenue generated a year ago, driven primarily by a 21% increase in gold sales and a 3% uptick in the average realized gold price, partially offset by a 6% decline in silver sales and a 3% drop in the average realized silver price.

Average cash costs were US$4.54/oz of silver sold and US$407/oz of gold sold, compared to US$4.51/oz of silver sold and US$393/oz of gold sold last year.

Wheaton Precious had about US$93 million in cash and US$957 million outstanding under its US$2 billion revolving term loan as of June 30. It used its revolving facility to fund the US$500 million metals stream deal with Sibanye Gold Ltd. covering the Stillwater and East Boulder mines in Montana. The company also recently closed a US$690 million cobalt streaming deal for the Voisey's Bay complex in Newfoundland.

With the addition of these streams, Wheaton Precious pegged its attributable production for the year at about 355,000 ounces of gold, 22.5 million ounces of silver, and 10,400 ounces of palladium.

Annual attributable output for the next five years is projected at approximately 385,000 ounces of gold, 25 million ounces of silver, 27,000 ounces of palladium, and beginning in 2021, 2.1 million pounds of cobalt per year.