Mining royalties are drawing attention as a potential tool for economic reconciliation in Canada. The discussion comes as Indigenous participation in the country’s resource economy grows.
BNN Bloomberg spoke with Derrick Pattenden, president and chief executive officer of Nations Royalty, about the company’s origins with the Nisga’a Nation and its portfolio of interests in five mines and development projects.
Key Takeaways
- Indigenous ownership can help align mining operations with the interests of communities affected by resource development, Pattenden says.
- Access to capital and thorough consultation about project benefits and risks remain barriers to Indigenous ownership.
- Pattenden estimates that Indigenous communities received slightly more than $500 million through mining impact benefit agreements in 2025.
- Building trust takes time, with financial advice during agreement negotiations offering one way to establish partnerships with First Nations.
- Pattenden favours royalties over equity in mining, arguing they offer lower risk and can command higher valuation multiples.
Read the full transcript below:
LINDSAY: Nations Royalty holds a unique distinction as Canada’s only majority Indigenous-owned and led public company, providing investors a unique opportunity to invest in Canada’s last untapped segment of the royalty market. For more, we’re joined by Derrick Pattenden, president and chief executive officer of Nations Royalty. It’s great to have you join us today. Thanks for taking the time.
DERRICK: Happy to be here.
LINDSAY: So, can you walk us through maybe the origins of Nations Royalty and how it was created, first of all?
DERRICK: Sure. We IPO’d back in June 2024 and, in doing so, created the first and currently the only majority Indigenous-owned publicly traded company in Canada’s stock market. Our founding nation is the Nisga’a Nation from northern B.C. It’s about 9,000 members. They’re a 72 per cent shareholder in our company, and they saw the merits ultimately in, in taking some of their mining royalty assets public and getting public market valuations for them.
LINDSAY: Obviously, we’re talking to you on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. There are obviously economic issues behind reconciliation. I wonder, what role do you think Indigenous ownership of businesses and natural resources can play in kind of starting to close that economic gap?
DERRICK: I think it’s a very strategic and helpful force — can help create alignment. I work mostly in the mining industry, and I think it helps create a lot of alignment between the, you know, the mining operations going on in those territories, as well as with the local communities impacted from those. So, you know, I’d like to see it. I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of it coming in the years to come.
LINDSAY: What do you think the biggest barriers are right now to Indigenous communities becoming owners of resource development projects?
DERRICK: Ability to access capital would be one, and also just a, you know, a thorough consultation process, like fully explaining all the, all the benefits and downsides to all the various operations that are being put forward.
LINDSAY: Okay, let’s talk more about Nations Royalty specifically because your company currently owns royalty interests in five mines and development projects. Walk us through a couple of those mines and projects.
DERRICK: Sure. So the first one that’s in production would be Brucejack. It’s a high-grade underground gold mine, makes about 260,000 ounces a year, operated by Newmont. So we have a royalty on that through Nisga’a Nation’s impact benefit agreement, and, you know, last quarter revenue was about $2.2 million. So if you annualize that, it’s close to about $9 million a year. We have four other assets. Another one would be on the Cambria Gold Mines, Premier, Red Mountain. It’s a restart situation, a gold mine probably targeting an updated feasibility study the next three to six months, and then putting that asset back into production. And then lastly, the biggest one would be on KSM. It’s owned by Seabridge Gold. It’s about a $4.5-billion company. We have a royalty interest on that, and what’s unique about that asset is it’s Canada’s largest permitted but undeveloped gold-copper deposit. It’s got almost 50 million ounces of reserves in the ground there, and over seven billion pounds of copper. So it’s a very big, very long-life asset, a great cornerstone asset for a mining royalty company.
LINDSAY: Every mine in Canada does operate under some agreements with local Indigenous communities, right? Like, how is, how is Nations Royalty leveraging those agreements?
DERRICK: Sure. So, yeah. So most typically, there’s something called an impact benefit agreement between the mining company and a nation. Many things in that agreement, all sorts of environmental stuff, legal stuff, job opportunities for the nation, business opportunities for the nation. One aspect in there is often a financial payment, and that can take the form of a royalty. And that’s really what we’re looking to partner on with other nations to join Nisga’a, and really, you know, use the mining royalty business model as a financial tool to get more value out of those same payments.
LINDSAY: How would you describe your growth strategy?
DERRICK: So we’re going to be folk— There’s lots of mining royalty companies out there. What we’re doing different as the only majority Indigenous-owned vehicle in the space, also majority Indigenous-governed and managed, is we’re focusing on that untapped opportunity set of Indigenous-owned royalties. Last year, in 2025, there was a little over $500 million in payments made through IBAs between mining companies, Indigenous groups. So that’s the sector that we’re focusing on, striking nation-to-nation business alliances through the stock market on that niche opportunity set in the royalty space.
LINDSAY: Obviously, there’s headwinds for any corporation or company. I wonder what those are for you. Some of the main headwinds, and how is the company positioned to handle any potential headwinds?
DERRICK: Yeah, one of the headwinds is, you know, similar to many aspects of business. These sort of partnerships or large transactions obviously require a lot of trust to be built up beforehand, and so that, that does take time. One thing we are doing, though, to help in that regard is we also act as financial advisers to First Nations when they negotiate or renegotiate their impact benefit agreements with mining companies. So that’s, you know, a really helpful way for us to do good work, show we’re on their side, and show that we can be a trusted partner that can help create value for their nation.
LINDSAY: What unique opportunities does the company offer for investors?
DERRICK: It offers investors a way to access exposure to assets that otherwise, up to this time, have never been available through the public equity markets. And I would just, you know, encourage investors to look at our portfolio and see the sort of assets that are out there. And, you know, the quality of Indigenous-owned royalties is actually really quite stunning, simply because it does relate to so many of the mines across the country, and certainly, obviously, if you were to cherry-pick the top, the top ones, it’s, you know, we believe could be one of the stronger mining royalty portfolios out there. And that’s really the whole point of this company, is we believe the Indigenous peoples of Canada have the power and ability to create a very strong, high-quality mining royalty-focused portfolio, all inside the, you know, this tier-one safe jurisdiction of Canada.
LINDSAY: For sure, and there has been more discussion about that, right? Like about Indigenous equity ownership in major resource projects. I know you touched on this near the beginning of our conversation, but do you see that as becoming like a much, a much bigger part of Canada’s resource economy as a whole?
DERRICK: Yep, it is becoming bigger. I’d say definitely lots of different equity partnerships. Although I’d say in the mining space, I’m — I work at a mining royalty company, and for me, I’m a real big champion of royalties over equity, particularly in mining. It’s kind of the lowest-risk payment structure, and arguably the highest, the arguably the most valuable payment structure in all of mining, right? They — the royalty assets on mines can trade at multiples above what the equity interest trade at, but there is a, you know, a royalty-equity mix out there, and it probably depends sector to sector whether that’s mining or energy or other sorts of things. So it all probably depends on the sector. What’s maybe most appropriate?
LINDSAY: Of course. Okay, we got to leave it there. Derrick Pattenden, president and chief executive officer of Nations Royalty. Really appreciate you joining us today. Thank you.
DERRICK: Thanks for having me.
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This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the Sept. 30, 2026 interview with Derrick Pattenden are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.
