New mine should lift second-half sales

Article Excerpt

NEWMONT MINING CORP. $39 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 490 million; Market cap: $19.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.4; WSSF Rating: Average) earned $213 million, or $0.43 a share, in the three months ended June 30, 2009. That’s down 3.6% from the $221 million, or $0.50 a share, it earned the previous year. The latest figures exclude one-time costs related to Newmont’s purchase of the remaining one-third interest in Australia’s Boddington gold mine. Revenue rose 6.6%, to $1.6 billion from $1.5 billion. Gold sales (86% of revenue), rose 4%, as Newmont’s realized gold price climbed 1.7%. Copper sales (14% of revenue) rose 25% as higher production offset a 39% drop in prices. Newmont’s revenue should continue to rise in the second half of 2009, as Boddington reaches full production. (The mine officially opened on July 23.) The company is also doing a good job of lowering its production costs. Newmont is a buy. buy…