Newmont Corp.

Gold is currently trading at around $1,183 U.S. an ounce. That’s up 4% from April 19, 2010, when it was trading at around $1,138 U.S. an ounce, but still short of gold’s all-time high of $1,214.80 U.S., which it reached in late 2009. Gold’s recent rise has partly been driven by investor fears about European sovereign debt — Greek debt in particular. These fears are prompting more investors to buy gold and gold investments, because they believe gold will provide them with additional security.

Further European debt problems would push gold up even further

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NEWMONT MINING $54.09 (New York symbol NEM; Shares outstanding: 483.0 million; Market cap: $26.1 billion; SI Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 0.7%) expects its gold production to rise 5% to 10% this year. Its new Boddington gold mine in Australia, which started operating in July 2009, is the main reason. Boddington’s reserves should last over 24 years. Newmont remains our top choice in gold stocks for safety-conscious investors. That’s because of its high-quality mines and low production costs. As well, most of the company’s production is in politically stable areas, such as North America and Australia. Newmont Mining is a buy.

NEWMONT MINING CORP. $50 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 491.0 million; Market cap: $24.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.3; Dividend yield: 0.8%; WSSF Rating: Average) is one of the world’s largest gold-mining companies. It has major mines in the U.S., Australia and Peru. Gold accounts for about 85% of Newmont’s revenue. The remaining 15% comes from copper, zinc and other metals. Most of Newmont’s copper comes from its 35.4% stake in the large Batu Hijau mining complex in Indonesia. Average gold prices rose 248.4%, from $279 an ounce in 2000 to $972 in 2009. Gold has fallen from the all-time high of $1,214.80 an ounce that it reached in late 2009, and now trades around $1,093....

NEWMONT MINING $51.94 (New York symbol NEM; Shares outstanding: 483.0 million; Market cap: $25.1 billion; SI Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 0.8%) reports that its 2009 earnings jumped 71.6%, to $1.4 billion from $792.0 million in 2008. The company sold common shares to raise funds to buy the one-third of the Boddington gold mine in Australia that it didn’t already own. Because of the extra shares outstanding, per-share earnings rose 60.3%, to $2.79 from $1.74. Cash flow per share rose 45.0%, to $6.45 from $4.45. Revenue rose 25.8%, to $7.7 billion from $6.1 billion. Results rose on higher gold and copper prices. Newmont sold its gold for $977 an ounce in 2009. That’s up 11.8% from $874 in 2008. The company feels that gold prices could rise to $1,350 an ounce this year. Newmont has also done a good job of cutting its production costs. Its unit production cost fell 4% for gold and 54% for copper....

Central Fund of Canada, $14.21, symbol CEF.A on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 213.0 million; Market cap: $3.0 billion) is a closed-end mutual fund that holds gold and silver bullion. It now holds 56.7% of its assets in gold bullion, 40.5% in silver bullion and 2.8% in cash. The fund has an MER of 0.38%. The units yield 0.07%. Central Fund trades at an 8% premium to the per-unit value of the assets it holds. We advise against buying closed-end funds at a premium, so we don’t recommend buying units of Central Fund. A: iShares CDN Gold Sector Index Fund, $20.31, symbol XGD on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 55.4 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion), aims to reflect the performance of the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index, which is made up of Canadian and non-Canadian gold stocks that S&P selects using its industrial classifications and guidelines. The fund holds 34 stocks, and its MER is capped at 0.55%....

NEWMONT MINING CORP, $49.28, New York symbol NEM, rose 2% this week after the company reported 2009 earnings that beat the $2.41 a share that analysts were expecting. Newmont’s 2009 earnings jumped 71.6%, to $1.4 billion from $792.0 million in 2008. The company sold common shares to raise funds to buy the one-third of the Boddington gold mine in Australia that it didn’t already own. Because of the extra shares outstanding, per-share earnings rose 60.3%, to $2.79 from $1.74. Cash flow per share rose 45.0%, to $6.45 from $4.45. Revenue rose 25.8%, to $7.7 billion from $6.1 billion. Higher gold and copper prices were the main reason for the improved results. Newmont sold its gold for an average of $977 an ounce in 2009. That’s up 11.8% from $874 in 2008....

SHORE GOLD $0.89 (Toronto symbol SGF; SI Rating: Start-up) (306-664-2202; www.shoregold.com; Shares outstanding: 224.5 million; Market cap: $199.8 million) released positive results from a prefeasibility study on its 100%-owned Star diamond project and the nearby 60%-held Orion South project in Saskatchewan. Newmont Mining owns the other 40% of Orion South, plus 9.9% of Shore’s common shares. The study projects that a mine would produce 35 million carats of diamonds over 20 years. Shore hopes to finish a feasibility study on the projects by early 2011. Production could begin in the first quarter of 2016. Shore Gold is a buy for highly aggressive investors.

WYNDHAM WORLDWIDE, $22.54, symbol WYN on New York, rose 10% this week after it reported higher-than-expected fourth-quarter profits. In the three months ended December 31, 2009, Wyndham’s earnings per share, excluding one-time items, fell 14.9%, to $0.40 from $0.47. Despite the drop, the latest earnings beat the $0.37 a share that analysts were expecting. Revenue rose slightly, to $913 million from $911 million. That was also higher than forecast: analysts had been expecting revenue of $855.7 million. The higher revenue was mainly the result of the economic recovery, which has pushed up travel demand and increased the number of guests at Wyndham’s hotels....

Last week, Newmont Mining (symbol NEM on New York), one of the world’s biggest gold producers, said that it believes that gold could rise as high as $1,350 U.S. an ounce this year. Gold has fallen from the all-time high of $1,214.80 U.S. that it reached in late 2009, and now trades around $1,092 U.S. We cover Newmont in our Wall Street Stock Forecaster and Canadian Wealth Advisor newsletters. See below for more on this gold mining stock’s wide-ranging operations.

Gold investing can expose you to unique risks

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NEWMONT MINING CORP. $55 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 490.2 million; Market cap: $27.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.0; WSSF Rating: Average) is one of the world’s largest gold-mining companies. Newmont has major mines in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Peru and Ghana. It gets about 80% of its revenue from gold. The remaining 20% comes from copper, zinc and other metals. Most of Newmont’s copper comes from the large Batu Hijau gold/copper mining complex in Indonesia. As part of its original 1986 deal to develop Batu Hijau, Newmont and its partners agreed to lower their stakes in the mine, in stages, by selling them to the Indonesian government. As a result, the company recently reduced its stake in Batu Hijau to 31.5% from 45%. In exchange, Newmont received roughly $669 million. The company expects to sell more of its stake in Batu Hijau over the next few months. Meanwhile, Newmont earned $388 million in the three months ended September 30, 2009. That’s 113.2% higher than the $182 million it earned a year earlier. Per-share earnings jumped 97.5%, to $0.79 from $0.40, on more shares outstanding. Cash flow per share gained 94.8%, to $1.85 from $0.95. Revenue climbed 49.5%, to $2.05 billion from $1.4 billion. The gains were mainly caused by higher average gold prices (up 11%), and higher gold sales (up 16%). Newmont also cut its operating costs and benefited from higher copper prices and production....