Topic: How To Invest

Pat: What do you think of HudBay Minerals? They seem to be one of the few base-metal mining companies turning a profit at today’s prices. Thanks.

Article Excerpt

HudBay Minerals Inc., $8.20, symbol HBM on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 153.1 million; Market cap: $1.3 billion), produces base metals. HudBay first sold shares to the public at $2.25 each, and began trading on Toronto in December 2004. HudBay produces most of its zinc and copper in northern Manitoba, where it owns the 777 mine and the Trout Lake mine. The company also runs a concentrator, a copper smelter and a zinc plant at Flin Flon. Aside from its operating mines, HudBay holds 1.4 million hectares of exploration properties in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and land in Guatemala, New York State, the Yukon, Ontario and Chile. As well, last August HudBay completed a resource study that outlined an 18- to 20-million-tonne zinc deposit at its Lalor Lake project near Flin Flon. HudBay plans to undertake further exploration to outline a mineable deposit. In the three months ended December 31, 2008, falling copper and zinc prices drove down HudBay’s revenue by 26.3%, to $178.8 million from…