Mining Stocks

While sometimes risky, mining stocks can also be strong performers when commodity prices move up. However, due to the volatility of these stocks, Pat McKeough recommends that they only form a modest part of a well-balanced portfolio.

Canadian penny mining stocks are some of the riskiest stocks you can buy. These companies are trying to find mineral deposits that mine at a profit and such a find are exceedingly rare. Because of this, it’s even more important to look for investment quality in penny mines.

For example, we automatically rule out investing in penny mines that promote themselves too aggressively or do so misleadingly. The mine-finding effort is more likely to succeed if the managers focus on finding a mine rather than hyping their stock.

Junior mining stocks are usually smaller companies that typically take on riskier mining projects. However, if a junior mining stock is successful at finding and mining, it can mean huge returns for investors.

No matter what type of mining stocks, or other stocks you invest in, TSI Network recommends following our three-part Successful Investor strategy:

  1. Invest mainly in well-established, mostly dividend-paying companies;
  2. Spread your money out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; Consumer; Finance; and Utilities);
  3. Downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight.

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Rare Earth Miner: Molycorp crushing facility image
Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on specific stocks and other investment topics from the members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And each week, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. This past week, an Inner Circle member asked us about one of the mining stocks involved in the quest for rare earth metals. China’s iron grip on the rare earth market is a key factor in the pricing of these minerals, Pat notes, and he looks at how this stock is working to contest it with a re-opened mine and a new acquisition. ...
Commodity Stocks: DNI Metals logo image
Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on specific stocks and other investment topics from the members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And each week, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. Last week, an Inner Circle member had a particularly intriguing question about commodity stocks. Specifically, he wanted Pat’s opinion on a company that is using a revolutionary technology in an area in which traditional methods don’t work....
Iron ore mining stock
Pat McKeough responds to many personal questions on stocks and other investment topics from the members of his Inner Circle. Every week, his comments and recommendations on a selection of the most intriguing questions of the past week go out to all Inner Circle members. And every Friday, we offer you one of the highlights from these Q&A sessions. This week, an Inner Circle member asked Pat about one of Canada’s major mining stocks. Labrador Iron Ore Royalty has quietly built a position as a world leader in iron ore. Now it faces several challenges in today’s volatile commodity markets....
Newmont Mining Corp., New York symbol NEM, links future dividend hikes to the price of gold: it will raise the quarterly rate by $0.05 a share for each $100-per-ounce rise in its average selling price for gold in the preceding quarter. The company has now enhanced this policy. If gold prices exceed $1,700 an ounce, it will raise the quarterly dividend by an additional $0.025 a share, for a total increase of $0.075 a share. If gold prices rise above $2,000 an ounce, Newmont will raise the dividend by an additional $0.05 a share, for a total increase of $0.10 a share....
CanAlaska Uranium Ltd., symbol CVV on Toronto, has agreed to sell up to 3,150,000 units for $0.69 each. Each unit consists of one common share and one half of a warrant. One whole warrant will let the holder buy an additional common share for $0.83. CanAlaska will receive roughly $2.2 million from the unit sale. That’s equal to 22% of this uranium stock’s $10.1 million market cap. It will use the cash to further explore and develop its 21 uranium projects in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin region, sometimes referred to as the “Saudi Arabia of uranium.”

Uranium stocks: CanAlaska has one of the largest positions in the Basin

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Could I have your opinion on Thompson Creek Metals? There is a lot of enthusiasm in B.C., but the market does not seem to share the same optimism.
Cameco Corp., symbol CCO on Toronto, has launched a hostile takeover bid for Hathor Exploration (symbol HAT on Toronto). Cameco is offering $520 million, or $3.75 a share, for this uranium exploration company. Hathor’s main exploration properties are on the east side of the Athabasca Basin. This region in northern Saskatchewan and Alberta contains all of Canada’s producing uranium mines, and accounts for 23% of the global production of uranium. Right now, Hathor is exploring for uranium at its Midwest Northeast project, which is close to producing properties that are currently owned by Cameco and AREVA of France....
All resource stocks are subject to the risk that comes with the rise and fall of commodity prices. But, depending on where they do business, some also face a second challenge: political risk. Among Canadian mining stocks, Sherritt International (Toronto symbol S) is prominently identified with political risk due to its extensive involvement in Cuba. The company’s Cuban operations are profitable, but it is expanding into other countries to lessen that risk. Sherritt is a diversified natural resource company that produces nickel, cobalt, thermal coal, oil and gas. It also manages 376 megawatts of power-generation capacity in Cuba....
IAMGold, symbol IMG on Toronto, owns 38% of the Sadiola mine and 40% of the Yatela mine, both located in Mali; 100% of the Mupane gold mine in Botswana, 90% of the Essakane gold mine in Burkina Faso; 100% of the Doyon mine in Quebec; and 100% of the Rosebel mine in Suriname, South America. We analyze IAMGold in Stock Pickers Digest, our newsletter that recommends stocks (including gold mining stocks) for the part of your portfolio you devote to aggressive investing. IAMGold also owns the Niobec niobium mine in Quebec, and has a 1% royalty interest in the Diavik diamond mine in the Northwest Territories....
BHP Billiton Ltd. ADRs, New York symbol BHP, is the world’s largest mining company, with major operations in Australia, South Africa, Chile and the U.K. It produces iron ore, coal, oil, aluminum, manganese, diamonds and titanium. BHP is one of the blue chip mining stocks we analyze in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster newsletter. In the fiscal year ended June 30, 2011, BHP earned $21.7 billion, or $7.87 per ADR (each American Depositary Receipt represents two BHP common shares). That’s up 73.9% from $12.5 billion, or $4.48 per ADR, in fiscal 2010. Even so, the latest earnings missed the consensus forecast of $7.16 per ADR. Revenue rose 35.9%, to $71.7 billion from $52.8 billion....