gold prices

San Gold, $2.04, symbol SGR on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 314.8 million; Market cap: $642.2 million; www.sangold.ca), operates the Rice Lake gold mine in Manitoba. This mine is about 200 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, and west of the Red Lake mining region in neighbouring Ontario. The Rice Lake gold mine originally operated from 1932 to 1968. During that time, it produced 1.36 million ounces of gold. It remained idle for almost 30 years, until Rea Gold Corporation decided to rebuild it. Rea installed a hoist and a new shaft, and it built new surface infrastructure. It also expanded the mill. But before Rea could begin mining gold at the site, it ran into financial trouble and filed for bankruptcy in 1997. Harmony Gold Mining Ltd. of South Africa bought the property in 1998 and produced 110,000 ounces of gold before low gold prices prompted the company to close the mine in 2001....

IAMGOLD $16.38 (Toronto symbol IMG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (1-888-464-9999; www.iamgold.com; Shares outstanding: 376.8 million; Market cap: $6.2 billion; Dividend yield: 1.2%) sold its Mupane mine in Botswana for $34.2 million in September 2011 (all figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Earlier in 2011, IAMGold sold its 18.9% stake in the Tarkwa and Damang gold mines in Ghana to South African mining giant Gold Fields Ltd. for $667 million in cash.

The sales left IAMGold with 38% of the Sadiola mine and 40% of the Yatela mine, both located in Mali; 90% of its new Essakane gold mine in Burkina Faso; 100% of the Doyon mine in Quebec; and 100% of the Rosebel mine in Suriname, South America.

In addition, IAMGold also has a 1% royalty interest in the Diavik diamond mine in the Northwest Territories. It also owns the Niobec niobium mine in Quebec. Niobium is a rare metal that when used as an additive makes steel stronger, more heat resistant and easier to weld.

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Gold prices have moved down from their peak of $1,918 an ounce in August 2011 to today’s price of $1,595. Gold could move higher in the long term, but it will remain volatile. In addition, a deeper drop is by no means out of the question. We continue to recommend that you focus your gold investing on gold-mining stocks and avoid buying gold bullion, gold coins (unless you collect them as a hobby) or certificates representing an interest in bullion. That’s because these investments have hidden costs, such as insurance and storage, that dramatically cut their value over time. Newmont remains our top choice among gold stocks. Most of its production comes from politically stable areas, such as North America and Australia. As well, its new dividend policy gives investors an opportunity to automatically profit when gold prices rise....

Crocodile Gold, $0.50, symbol CRK on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 312.5 million; Market cap: $155.0 million; www.crocgold.com), owns operating gold mines in the Australia’s Northern Territory. At the end of February, the company’s shares dropped from around $1.35 to $1.00 after it was only able to sell shares at $1.05 each to raise funds. The stock has since steadily fallen to today’s price. Crocodile Gold holds cash of $49.2 million U.S., or $0.16 U.S. a share, but it’s still reporting negative cash flow, even with today’s high gold prices. The company’s high cash cost per ounce—$1,673 U.S. in the latest quarter and $1,432 U.S. during Australia’s dry season, from April through September 2011—is a major reason for that....

NEWMONT MINING CORP. $61 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 494.8 million; Market cap: $30.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.3; Dividend yield: 2.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.newmont.com) is one of the world’s largest gold-mining companies. It has major mines in the U.S., Australia and Peru.

Newmont gets about 90% of its revenue from gold. It gets the remaining 10% from copper, zinc and other metals. Most of Newmont’s copper comes from its 27.56% stake in the large Batu Hijau mining complex in Indonesia. Combined with financing arrangements the company has with other Batu Hijau shareholders, Newmont’s economic interest in this mine is effectively 44.56%.

The company prefers to sell its gold at the market price instead of through long-term hedging contracts that lock in prices. This policy has helped it take full advantage of rising gold prices: Newmont’s average realized gold price jumped 105.7%, from $594 an ounce in 2006 to $1,222 in 2010.

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GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER., $13.58, symbol GT on New York, expects to restart its flood-damaged plant in Pathum Thani, Thailand, between March and May of 2012. Goodyear closed this facility, which makes a large portion of its consumer and airplane tires, in October 2011. As a result of the flooding, the airline industry could experience a shortage of certain tires in early 2012. To try to prevent this, Goodyear is increasing production at its other aircraft-tire plants, including its facilities in Danville, Virginia; Stockbridge, Georgia; Kingman, Arizona; and Tilburg, in the Netherlands. Even so, the shutdown at the plant in Thailand will weigh on Goodyear’s production, and will hurt the company’s sales and profits in the fourth quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012. But even with this setback, the company’s long-term outlook remains sound....

YAMANA GOLD $14.52 (Toronto symbol YRI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-815-0220; www.yamana.com; Shares outstanding: 746.2 million; Market cap: $10.8 billion; Dividend yield: 1.3%) owns seven operating gold mines in Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. It also holds a 12.5% stake in the Alumbrera copper/gold mine in Argentina, and has three other properties in advanced stages of development. In the three months ended September 30, 2011, Yamana’s revenue rose 22.3%, to $555.2 million from $454.0 million a year earlier (all figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Cash flow per share rose 57.1%, to $0.44 from $0.28. The company raised its production by 4.4% during the quarter, to 279,274 ounces of gold from 267,409 a year earlier. As well, record-high gold prices pushed up Yamana’s selling price for gold by 37.4%....

PASON SYSTEMS $11.74 (Toronto symbol PSI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (403-301-3400; www.pason.com; Shares outstanding: 82.3 million; Market cap: $966.2 million; Dividend yield: 3.4%) rents equipment for monitoring and managing oil and gas rigs. It also sells communication systems, such as its satellite system, which companies use to remotely collect data from their drilling operations. Pason serves oil and gas producers and drilling contractors throughout Canada, the U.S., Mexico and Argentina. In the three months ended September 30, 2011, Pason’s revenue rose 29.2%, to $88.7 million from $68.7 million a year earlier. Many of the company’s clients increased their drilling, especially for shale gas and oil. Earnings jumped 140.0%, to $28.5 million, or $0.35 a share, from $11.9 million, or $0.15 a share. The increased drilling pushed up Pason’s earnings. Strong demand also let the company raise its prices....

EUROPEAN GOLDFIELDS, $12.86, symbol EGU on Toronto, is up almost 29% this week. The rise came after the company confirmed that an unnamed potential buyer has approached it about a takeover offer. Eldorado Gold, symbol ELD on Toronto, is rumoured to be the interested party. European Goldfields’ Skouries and Olympias gold projects in Greece and its Certej project in Romania would be good fits for Eldorado, which already has mines in Greece and Turkey. We’ve said for some time that European Goldfields could become a takeover target as its new mines move toward production. That’s even more of a possibility now, after its recent financing deal with Qatar Holdings LLC, a division of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, to develop its mines....

MAJOR DRILLING $15.32 (Toronto symbol MDI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (www.majordrilling.com; 1-866-264-3986; Shares outstanding: 74.9 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; Dividend yield: 1.0%) is a large contract drilling firm that mainly serves the mining industry.

In the three months ended October 31, 2011, Major’s revenue rose 67.3%, to $213.9 million from $127.8 million a year earlier. Earnings per share jumped 168.8%, to $0.43 from $0.16.

During the quarter, many of Major’s customers increased their drilling activity to take advantage of record gold prices and high base metal prices. Gold mining firms supply 48% of Major’s revenue, followed by base-metal and uranium miners (35%) and energy, coal and groundwater test drillers (17%).

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