SHERRITT INTERNATIONAL $4.90(Toronto symbol S; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-800- 704-6698; www.sherritt.com; Shares outstanding: 296.9 million; Market cap: $1.5 billion; Dividend yield: 3.1%) recently finished building a mine at its 40%-owned Ambatovy project on the island nation of Madagascar, off Africa’s east coast.
The government of Madagascar has just signed an operating permit that will let Sherritt and its partners begin production at Ambatovy, which will be one of the world’s biggest nickel mines.
The $5.5-billion project will be able to produce 60,000 tonnes of refined nickel a year for the next three decades.
Sherritt is also Cuba’s largest foreign investor; its Cuban operations account for the majority of its revenue and earnings. The country’s uncertain political and economic situation adds to the stock’s risk.
However, the Amabatovy mine is a major part of Sherritt’s plan to diversify away from Cuba by investing in other countries. As part of that strategy, it also bought 46% of mining giant Rio Tinto’s huge Sulawesi nickel project in Indonesia in late 2011.
Sherritt International is still a buy.
