Peter Barnes: Winner: Mining & Metals

peter-barnes_ceo-silver-wheaton_5.jpg

The 2010 Mining and Metals Entrepreneur of the Year is Peter Barnes, the CEO of Silver Wheaton Corp.

Peter Barnes hardly fits the stereotype of either accountant or entrepreneur, but that hasn’t stopped him from forging a novel approach to accounting for the value in silver mines around the world. Silver Wheaton sold $239.3 million in silver last year – without owning a single mine.


But the soft-spoken Barnes is reticent to take all the credit. “I’ve never particularly thought of myself as an entrepreneurial person,” he says. Rather, he adds, “I like to think outside the box, and I like to surround myself with very smart people.”


One of those people is Ian Telfer, whom Barnes joined at Wheaton River Minerals Ltd. in 2003, prior to its merger with Goldcorp Inc. in 2005. Telfer and Barnes wanted to maximize the value of Wheaton River’s silver production, a byproduct of its copper mines. Barnes’s solution was to establish a separate company to handle silver sales. Silver Wheaton launched in 2004 to “stream” silver to market, and it now handles product from Goldcorp, Barrick Gold Corp. and others.


“The whole business model is focused on creating shareholder value and using what I call financial engineering to do that. We don’t own mines, but we’re one of the largest silver companies in the world,” Barnes explains. “It’s a different way, and what I think is a better way, of making money for shareholders.”

The results obviously impressed this year’s Entrepreneur of the Year judges. “Silver Wheaton created a brilliant model which extracted substantial shareholder value,” says one. Another calls Barnes the consummate entrepreneur for the vision he brought to bear on Wheaton River’s silver dilemma: “His unique approach to silver streaming has resulted in outstanding profitability and shareholder equity.”


The 54-year-old Uganda native, who emigrated to Canada in 1981 at the age of 25 following a ski trip, has typically done what he likes. Right now that’s running Silver Wheaton, but he longs to spend more time with family.


“There’s a lot of luck in life, and bad luck. So I don’t think you just always dream of what you want to do in the future; you’ve got to do it,” he says. “That’s what I’ve done my whole life.”