Topic: How To Invest

Hi Pat, could you please comment on Labrador Iron Ore Royalty, with the news that iron ore is in demand? Is this income trust a buy?

Article Excerpt

Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Income Fund, $47.45, symbol LIF.UN on Toronto (Units outstanding: 32.0 million; Market cap: $1.5 billion), holds a 7% gross overriding royalty (or 7% of the selling price for each iron-ore product produced, sold and shipped) and a 15.1% equity interest in Iron Ore Company of Canada (IOC). On top of that, Labrador Iron Ore gets a $0.10-per-ton commission on all iron-ore products IOC makes, sells and ships. IOC, which has produced iron-ore concentrate and pellets since 1954, is Canada’s largest iron-ore producer, and is among the world’s top-five makers of iron-ore pellets. Rio Tinto (symbol RTP on New York) is IOC’s operator and majority shareholder, with 58.7% of its shares. Mitsubishi Corp. of Japan holds the remaining 26.2%. IOC operates a mine, a concentrator (a machine that employs a mechanical process to separate the ore from the waste rock) and a pellet plant at Labrador City, Newfoundland, and has year-round port facilities at Sept-Iles, Quebec. It has…