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On August 9, 2011 I had the opportunity to interview Randy Smallwood, CEO and President of Silver Wheaton Corp. with respect to Silver Wheaton’s then current operations and prospects.

Founded in 2004, and headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Silver Wheaton (TSX:SLW, NYSE:SLW) is what has come to be known as a ‘silver streamer’.  Simplistically, Silver Wheaton purchases, in exchange for an upfront cash payment, the by-product silver production of mines that it does not own or operate. The prices that Silver Wheaton pays for future silver production are pre-determined by contractual agreement.  Silver Wheaton currently is the world’s largest ‘silver streamer’, and a major Canadian Public Company success story.  Its market capitalization has grown in the past seven years since its inception to approximately Cdn$13 billion (at the close of trading on August 12).

Among other things, Mr. Smallwood explains in this four part interview that while Silver Wheaton’s business opportunity is in part levered to the price of physical silver, how conceptually investing in Silver Wheaton can be differentiated from purchasing and holding physical silver as a ‘safe haven’ investment or for some other purpose. In particular, he explains why he believes Silver Wheaton’s business model provides potential leverage to the physical silver price, while insulating Silver Wheaton from the direct risks related to operating the mines that produce the physical silver (and the comparatively small amounts of physical gold) that it purchases through contracts with those miners.

In my view anyone interested in physical silver ought to listen to all four parts of this interview carefully, think hard about what they hear, spend time researching Silver Wheaton for themselves (which Subscribers to StockResearchPortal.com can get a serious head-start on by visiting http://goo.gl/TtFGX), and discuss Silver Wheaton with their investment advisor if they then are interested in doing that.

My interview with Mr. Smallwood is divided into four (4) parts. In Part 1 of this interview he discusses the Silver Wheaton business model, important differences between Silver Wheaton and mining companies that either produce silver as a by-product or produce silver as their principal metal output, Corporate Governance, and Silver Wheaton’s share price in the context of the price of physical silver.  In Parts 2 – 4 of this interview Mr. Smallwood provides in some considerable detail his current views with respect to Silver Wheaton’s prospective risks and opportunities.  Each of my e-mails for the balance of this week will include one part of this interview.   All four Parts of this interview will continue to be available after Friday on StockResearchPortal.com.

Today’s interview is about 15 minutes long.

• Parts 1,2, 3 & 4 – Randy Smallwood, Silver Wheaton Corp.

Disclosure: I indirectly own, and control the ownership of, Silver Wheaton common shares acquired in the open market.

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