Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE: WPM) is a gold and silver stock, but it isn't a miner. This is an important fact, even though its revenue and profits are driven by the sale of these precious metals. So, "production" levels are important to monitor, but you have to look at the company in a slightly unique way.

Here's why the magic number for Wheaton is looking like it could be 1 million ounces.

Wheaton is a streaming and royalty company. That means that it provides miners with cash up front for the right to buy gold, silver, and other metals at reduced rates in the future. The cash that miners receive is usually put toward capital investment projects, like the construction of new mines or the upgrading of existing ones. The benefit of working with a company like Wheaton is that the miner gets access to cash without having to take on debt, which protects its balance sheet, or sell stock, which limits shareholder dilution. Often, the gold and silver that Wheaton buys are just byproducts of other metal mining activities, like mining for copper.

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Source Fool.com