Friday, April 24, 2009

Gold Company | Newmont Mining Corporation

Newmont Mining Corporation

Newmont Mining Corporation is one of the largest gold mining companies in the world, and was founded back in 1921. Just four years later it was listed for the first time on a public exchange.

Based in Denver, Colorado in the U.S., Newmont employs somewhere around 34,000 workers and/or contractors, with most of those in their base operations in Australia, Indonesia, Ghana, Peru and the United States.

Newmont Mining also has significant presence in Canada, New Zealand and Mexico, along with a number of smaller operations scattered around the world.

While mining jobs have slowed down some, the company still looks like it'll remain steady for workers going forward, as expectations that gold prices will rise before the year is out, and that could also spur more hiring from the gold mining company.

Smaller gold mining companies have been struggling, and while Newmont mining stock hasn't done much, there is a lot of hope it'll move in major way soon.

Newmont has impressed a number of people, and so much so that they're the only gold company at this time listed on the S&P 500 index, as well as the first gold mining company to be chosen to be a part of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.

When you think of a Newmont mine, you're thinking Newmont gold, and while that's primarily true, there are Newmont mines that are in the copper production business, mostly in the Batu Hijau operations in Indonesia.

At this time the Indonesian government has put a value on the Newmont Mining Corporation's unit in the country at $4.9 billion. Indonesia is seeking to acquire a portion of Newmarks' unit, and is in negotiations to possibly buy the entire division.

For the end of December 31, 2008, the mining company had an estimated 85 million equity ounces in reserve, and had an aggregate land position of about 38,840 square mile, or 100,600 square kilometers.

Going forword, the Newmont gold mining company is strongly positioned to take advantage of any upwards move in the price of gold.

Newmont Mining Corporation

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Silver Companies | Silver Wheaton in Tough Economic Times

Silver Wheaton

There has been a lot of significance attached to the price of silver and the price ratio of silver to gold, which usually stands historically at about 20 to 1. For some time now it has hovered at around 70 ounces of silver for every ounce of gold, and that has many silver investors thinking there is an inevitable rise that is bound to come.

An number of silver industry and silver stock watchers believe Silver Wheaton may be in a strong position to take advantage of this expected move, as its business practices lend themselves to being strong as a silver investment.

One such practice of the silver miner is to buy a percentage of silver that comes from other silver mines, and has significant reserves that are up 24 percent year over year.

So the Silver Corp has a record amount of silver in reserve, standing at 429.7 million ounces. If Silver Wheaton could have even more ounces on hand, with increases possibly being as high as 33 percent and attributable measured and indicated silver resources increased to 213.5 million ounces.

With the endless, careless government spending, there are increasing inflationary pressures that are expected and sure to push up the prices of silver and gold, and more than likely Silver wheaton will climb with it.

Another postive factor for the company is investors are expected to remain actively in pursuit of the metal, and should be net buyers of silver this year, with projections of about 182 million ounces exchanging hands. Global record sales of silver stands at 222.2 million ounces which were acquired in 1980.

As far as industrial demand, it fell in 2008 to 701.2 million ounces, a decline of 3.1 percent from the 724 ounces in 2007. Higher silver prices and a tougher economic climate were a major part of the fall in fabrication demand in 2008.

In 2009, projections are silver demand will plunge to 641 million ounces because of countries and companies cutting back on buying.

Much of the product demand for items using silver like photography, silverweare, batteries, jewelry and electronics are expected to continue to be slow, putting downward pressure on demand.

Taking all of that into account, it seems its more the investors that will decide silver prices this year, more than industrial demand. If tough economic times and uncertainty remain for some time, investors will continually look for safety in both silver and gold. That should remain for the rest of 2009 and into next year.

For last year, overall silver supply is estimated to have risen to over 800 million ounces.

Last year silver mining production increased by around 14 million ounces over the year before, while secondary supply rose by about 11 million ounces. That could rise even more under the present conditions. As of 2008, silver investors were net buyers for the third straight year, and that should continue. In 2008 net buyers of silver were at the highest levels since the early part of the 1980s.

Again, all of this should play well to the positioning of Silver Wheaton and its usual practices to take advantage of this. They and other silver stocks should do well over the next year or so.

Just recently Silver Wheaton President and CEO John Shanahan, who was accepted in that position after serving an interim stint with the company since September 10, announced they have exercised a participation right to acquire 3,855,558 common shares of Revett Minerals, bringing its total percentage of shares owned in Revett to 16.4 percent.

Shanahan says he looks at it as a solid bakcing of Revett and a commitment over the long haul to increase production at the Troy Mine, while increasing the exploration stage at the Rock Creek project.

Silver Wheaton

Friday, April 3, 2009

Corn | Jim Rogers Macquarie Agriculture Index Fund

Jim Rogers has been an agriculture bull for some time, and has now combined that favorite investment sector of his in a new commodities index fund also including China, along with agriculture. Rogers has partnered with with Australia's Macquarie Funds group to create the new Macquarie and Rogers China Agriculture Index.

Rogers' contention for some time has been that no matter what happens in the global economy, and what may be the demand for the near and far future, agriculture is going to play an increasingly big role in the world, and those investing in the sector will do well in the years ahead.

Put the expanding Chinese middle class together with the growing population and economy, and you see the potential the Macquarie and Rogers China Agriculture Index fund represents.

so even with the continuing challenges facing the global economy, agricultural commodities will continue to be in high demand, especially those targeting the Asian market.

Commodity investors will be glad to know the difference between the Macquarie and Rogers China Agriculture Index and other Indices. In this case, the agriculture index fund will focus on the actual consumption of food and the price fluctuations connected to that, rather than simply tracking production, which doesn't guarantee anything will be consumed or sold.

With the price of food being undoubtedly tied to the Chinese people, anything targeting that market should enjoy bellwhether status in relationship to global food prices, and so an index fund in relationship to Jim Rogers should do well in tracking the price fluctuations of food in the densely populated country. It should rank among one of the top hedge funds in the near and far future.

Another benefit to those marketing and managing financial products to invest in, is the ability to create innovative products linked to the overall focus of the commodity index fund. How that happens is the exchange-traded futures contracts or commodity ETF future contracts it uses on physical commodities.

This is a great opportunity for those who believe in the overall competence of Jim Rogers to get involved in something he's studied and watched closely, as well as believes in passionately. In that sense, connecting to a hot commodity market like China with a agricultural raw materials fund will be a great way to profit for those interested in investing in a commodity or commodity index fund or ETF.

As Jim Rogers has said over the last several years, we can count on the current commodity bull market to continue for years, and the existing economic crisis will only extend it longer, even if there is some short term pain and slowdown.

As Rogers continues to hammer home, food will be eaten and in demand no matter what else happens. And with that demand to be no larger than in China, it positions Rogers, commodity investors, and the Macquarie and Rogers China Agriculture Index for long term investing success.

We must keep watching commodity hedge funds and commodity etfs which specifically target agriculture. With agriculture prices plunging in 2008, they will turn around sooner or later, and investing in a commodity index fund like Macquarie and Rogers China Agriculture Index should provide a solid return when those prices start to climb again.

Demand for food isn't just going to climb linearily, it will climb exponentially, as even with population-control efforts, it continues to climb in the Asian region had significant pace. Food demand and prices will follow that continuing trend.

The primary strategy of the Macquarie and Rogers China Agriculture Index is to track consumer consumption patterns in China, and how food prices respond to them. That's the underlying foundation of the fund. This is what gives the fund an excellent chance of bringing a high level of return for those looking at the agricultural commodity sector.

As mentioned earlier, more than any other people in the world in the years ahead, the Chinese will more than anybody determine the food priorities and prices globally, and the new agriculture commodity fund from Jim Rogers should move up with that reality.

While we know that past success doesn't in any way guarantee future results, the past performance of Jim Rogers, especially when working with George Soros and the amazingly successful Quantum Fund, which gained about 4,200 percent over a ten-year-period, does give an indication that he knows what he's doing, and does his homework when it comes to supply and demand of raw materials.

And Rogers now sees agriculture as the major point of demand for probably decades, and so the fund was created.

The new Macquarie and Rogers China Agriculture Index fund should be an important investment vehicle in the hot commodities hedge fund arena.