Amerigo dodges Chile’s higher taxes

Article Excerpt

AMERIGO RESOURCES, $1.35, is a buy for aggressive investors. The company (Toronto symbol ARG; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (www.amerigoresources.com; Shares outstanding: 182.0 million; Market cap: $245.7 million; Divided yield: 5.9%) processes copper and molybdenum from the waste rock of the giant El Teniente mine in Chile. That country is now considering new taxes for its mining industry; if the new taxes are approved, it’s estimated that Chilean copper mining companies could see their tax rates increase as much as 80% and their profit margins drop by more than 50% at current copper prices. With this change, Chile would become the nation with the highest tax burden on copper mining. However, it looks like the new tax will have little, or no, effect on Amerigo. The company states that its tailings operations are not subject to the Chilean mining royalty tax. That’s because it is not considered a mining firm within the scope of this tax, and it expects to remain unaffected in the future. Meanwhile,…