Newmont Corp.

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC. $38.23, New York symbol VZ, owns 55% of Verizon Wireless, a joint venture with UK-based Vodafone. Verizon Wireless has now agreed to buy privately held Alltel Corp., which provides wireless services to 13 million customers in mainly rural areas of 34 states. Verizon Wireless will pay $5.9 billion in cash and assume Alltel’s debt of $22.2 billion, for a total price of $28.1 billion. Verizon’s share works out to $15.5 billion, which is equal to 2.2 times the $6.9 billion or $2.37 a share it earned in 2007. After the merger, Verizon Wireless will be the largest wireless company in the United States, with over 80 million customers. The company aims to complete the takeover by the end of this year. Alltel and Verizon use similar cellular technologies, so Verizon should have few integration problems. Verizon feels the merger will generate annual cost savings of $1 billion in the second year after closing....

NEWMONT MINING CORP. $48 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 453.5 million; Market cap: $21.8 billion; WSSF Rating: Average) is one of the world’s largest gold mining companies, with major operations in the United States, Canada, Peru, Australia, Indonesia and Ghana. It also produces other metals such as copper and zinc. Gold prices nearly tripled in the past five years, to reach a high of $1,003 an ounce in March 2008. Gold now trades at $905. However, Newmont’s shares have lagged the jump in gold prices. That’s mainly due to rising fuel, labor and steel costs. Start-up costs at new mines have also weighed on its earnings.

Unwinding hedges will pay off

The company recently unwound its remaining gold hedges — amounts of future production sold in advance at fixed prices. A large hedge position adds to profits when gold prices drop, but limits profits when prices rise. Eliminating these hedges puts Newmont in a better position to profit from rising spot prices....

GABRIEL RESOURCES, $2.99, symbol GBU on Toronto, has nearly doubled for us since late April. Gabriel now has three major shareholders. New York City-based resource investor Thomas Kaplan began buying Gabriel shares in December, 2007 through his Electrum Strategic Holdings LLC. He is now Gabriel’s third-largest shareholder with a 14.4% stake. Newmont Mining, symbol NEM on New York, is Gabriel’s largest shareholder at 18.4%, followed by New York City-based hedge fund, Paulson & Co. at 18%. Gabriel announced this week that it will add five new members to its existing eight- member board. Newmont will nominate two additional directors and Electrum will nominate three new directors....

BROADRIDGE FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS INC. $17.94, New York symbol BR, has outlined details of a recent transaction by its clearing services subsidiary, Ridge Clearing & Outsourcing, in response to last week’s downgrade of its credit rating by Standard & Poor’s. In late 2007, Ridge Clearing accepted $380 million worth of securities as collateral. That transaction increased Broadridge’s short-term debt to just $426 million, which is equal to only 17% of its current market cap of $2.5 billion. The transaction involved 143 pools of AAA-rated mortgage-backed bonds issued by the Federal National Mortgage Association. The company states “there were no exotic or illiquid mortgage-backed derivative securities in this transaction”. As well, the party who had committed to purchase these bonds is a global financial services company rated A+ by Standard & Poor’s. This party completed the transaction on January 17, 2008, and Broadridge repaid the related short-term loan....

NEWMONT MINING $46.28 (New York symbol NEM; SI Rating: Average) is one of the largest gold producers in the world with major operations in the United States, Canada, Peru, Australia, Indonesia and Ghana. Newmont expects to produce 5.3 million ounces of gold this year. Late last year, Newmont completed the sale of 290 mining and oil and gas royalty interests to Franco-Nevada Corp. This gave Newmont $1.2 billion in cash to pay for its $1.5 billion purchase of TSX-listed Miramar Mining. It also lets it focus on its core gold mining business....

SHORE GOLD $3.80 (Toronto symbol SGF; SI Rating: Start-up) (306-664-2202; www.shoregold.com; Shares outstanding: 182.7 million; Market cap: $694.3 million) owns 100% of the Star diamond project in the Fort a la Corne area of Saskatchewan, which hosts one of the most extensive kimberlite fields in the world. Shore Gold has completed underground bulk sampling at the Star project, which returned high caratgrades of diamonds. By the end of this year, it hopes to complete a bankable feasibility study supporting a diamond mine. The company aims to complete construction of a mine by 2012. Shore Gold also holds 60% of the nearby Fort a la Corne Joint Venture. Newmont Mining holds the other 40%, as well as 9.9% of Shore Gold’s common shares....

Here are two promising diamond exploration stocks. Both have speculative appeal, but they are buys only for highly aggressive investors. SHORE GOLD $3.80 (Toronto symbol SGF; SI Rating: Start-up) (306-664-2202; www.shoregold.com; Shares outstanding: 182.7 million; Market cap: $694.3 million) owns 100% of the Star diamond project in the Fort a la Corne area of Saskatchewan, which hosts one of the most extensive kimberlite fields in the world. Shore Gold has completed underground bulk sampling at the Star project, which returned high caratgrades of diamonds. By the end of this year, it hopes to complete a bankable feasibility study supporting a diamond mine. The company aims to complete construction of a mine by 2012....

AMERIGO RESOURCES $2.54 (Toronto symbol ARG; SI Rating: Speculative) (604-681-2802; www.amerigoresources.com; Shares outstanding: 94.4 million; Market cap: $239.7 million) has a contract with Codelco, Chile’s state-owned copper producer, to process the tailings from El Teniente, the world’s largest underground copper mine. Tailings are the waste rock produced in the mining process. The contract runs at least through 2021. Amerigo has a further agreement with Codelco to process a supplementary source of material from the nearby Colihues tailings pond. Amerigo also holds 13.2% of TSX-listed Candente Resource Corp. with a market value of $16.6 million. Candente explores for copper, gold and silver in Peru and Mexico. In the three months ended September 30, 2007, Amerigo’s revenues rose 44.6%, to $28.5 million from $19.7 million. (All figures except share price in U.S. dollars.) Earnings fell 20.2%, to $6.6 million or $0.07 a share from $8.3 million or $0.09. Cash flow per share fell 16.7%, to $0.09 a share from $0.10. Earnings and cash flow fell because of higher Chilean power costs. The stock now trades at 7.1 times cash flow....

NEWMONT MINING CORP. $51 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 434.7 million; Market cap: $22.2 billion; WSSF Rating: Average) is one of the world’s largest producers of gold. It also mines copper, silver and zinc. Newmont aims to increase its exposure to gold. Its Canadian subsidiary Franco-Nevada Corp. recently sold shares to the public, and used the proceeds to pay Newmont $1.3 billion in cash for certain mining and oil and gas royalty assets. Newmont will use the cash to fund its $1.5 billion acquisition of Canadian gold mining company Miramar Mining Corp. Miramar’s Hope Bay Project in northern Canada is one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in North America....

We feel investors should diversify their resource sector holdings with non-oil stocks such as gold miner Newmont and forest products producer Weyerhaeuser. Both are leaders in their respective fields, and their large size makes it easier for them to endure commodity price swings NEWMONT MINING CORP. $51 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 434.7 million; Market cap: $22.2 billion; WSSF Rating: Average) is one of the world’s largest producers of gold. It also mines copper, silver and zinc. Newmont aims to increase its exposure to gold. Its Canadian subsidiary Franco-Nevada Corp. recently sold shares to the public, and used the proceeds to pay Newmont $1.3 billion in cash for certain mining and oil and gas royalty assets....