[Precious Metal] Silver Stocks

Silver Proof In the previous two articles we have talked about gold stocks and copper stocks. In the third article of the previous metal stocks we will take a look at another commodity - silver.

Here are the silver mining companies:

• Silver Wheaton Corp. (SLW): the Vancouver, Canada based silver mining company purchases silver mines in Mexico and Sweden. Silver Wheaton is the only public traded mining company with all of its revenue coming from silver production. The company is expected to have annual silver sales of about 15 million ounces and then to 20 million ounces by 2009. Since the stock begin listed in AMEX last July at $3.1 per share, it rose to as high as $11.75 per share in April, gaining almost 300% in less than a year, before the May and June sell-off pushed the stock back to $8.36 per share today. In early May the stock was moved from AMEX to NYSE in order to gain broader exposure yet the stock actually has been down since. As for 2005 the company has generated revenue of $70.9 million with income of $25.3 million.
• Hecla Mining Co. (HL): the Coeur Dalene, Idaho based company has mining operation of silver, gold, lead and zinc in United States, Venezuela and Mexico. After reaching multi-year low of 50 cents in December of 2000, the stock began to go north and is now trading at 850% since its low at $4.74 per share. For this year the company is expected to dig out 6 million ounes of silver. The average price of silver which is one of the most importanat number of the mining firm has increased to $9.69/ounce in the first quarter of 2006, up from $7/ounce in the same quarter of previous year. Although for 2005 the company got net loss of $26 million with shrinking revenue of $110 million, the first quarter of 2006 looks more promising as the company has already earned more than a third of last year revenue of $40 million while generating net income of $38 million.
• Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. (CDE): the silver and gold mining company is also based in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho with mining properties in United States, Australia and Africa. For 2005 the company has dig out 13.7 million ounces of silver compared to 14.1 million ounces in the previous year. The total probable silver reserves that the company owns is about 221.4 million ounces as of December of 2005. Despite slight drop in production the company actually has generated more revenue in 2005 - abuot $172 million compared with $133 million in the previous year on rising silver price. However recent sell-off has wiped out all the gains for this year as the stock is now back at $4.39 per share but should be expected to rise again with price of silver probably won't go down sharply anytime soon.

Smart Sector Of The Day - Peru

• Peru Stocks +5.02%: the country with rich natural resources is attracting investors as buyers are hoping the election in June will wipe out all the negatives. The Peru stocks, which covered two weeks ago on May 21, soared 5.02% to overall gain of 22.36%. So far all the stocks in this sector are in positive territory with one big winner leading the way, CUP, the copper mining company, leading the way with gain of 50% so far in just two weeks. CUP has surged for the third consecutive session from $4.14 at the close of last Wednesday to $6.05 today, gaining 46% in just three days. Today the stock also surged 14%.

[Prescious Metal] Copper Stocks

Precious Copper About a month ago we introduced companies involved in mining operation of a appreciating previous metal - gold. As prices of many precious metals are on the rise, it may be worth while to look at another metal on the rise - copper. After a brief look, we have noticed that most of the copper mining companies have benefited from the soaring copper price with annual stock price gain from 20% to 400%. As many of these copper mining companies are upgraded by analysts, this maybe worth while to take a look and see if you should have one of them in your portfolio.

Here are the copper mining companies:

• Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. (FCX): the New Orleans, Louisiana based mining company explores copper, gold and silver in properties in Indonesia. The rising copper price has helped the earning as the copper company's revenue almost doubled to 4.2 billion in 2005 compared to $2.4 billion in the previous year. For the most recent quarter, the company earned record net income of $251 million for the first quarter of 2006, almost doubled from $130 million in the same quarter of previous year. The stock for the past 52 weeks has gone up from $35.34 per share in the beginning of last June to $56.74 of June this year, up 60% in one year.
• Peru Copper Inc. (CUP): the Vancouver, Canada based company involves in copper mining operation in Peru. For the first quarter of 2006 the company reported a net loss of $1.0 million compared to net loss of $0.7 million of the same quarter in the previous year. Recently the company entered into an agreement for the option to acquire interest in a mining project which is estimated to have annual production rate of 272,788 tones of copper. For the past 52 weeks the stock has soared 400% from $1.1 in the beginning of last June to $5.29 on Friday of June 2, 2006.
• Phelps Dodge Corp. (PD): the Phoenix, Arizona based copper mining company is the world's second largest copper producer with copper mining production in United States and South America. The company has 17.7 billion in market cap with revenue of 8.63 billion and net income of $1.55 billion. For the past 52 weeks the stock has surged 100% from $86.85 last June to $86.94 on Friday of June 2, 2006, as the stock already went through a 2 for 1 split in March of 2006.
• Regalito Copper Corp. (RLO): the Vancouver, Canada based company is still in development stage and owns interests in copper property in Chile. The company has yet to generate any revenue and had a net loss of $3 million in 2005. The stock has gained about 20% for the past 52 weeks from $4.85 last June to $5.93 on Friday of June 2, 2006.
• Southern Copper Corp. (PCU): the Phoenix, Arizona based company involves in mining operation of copper, molybdenum, zinc, silver, gold and lead. the company operates copper mines in Peru and Mexico. As of 2005 the copper mining company produced 1,521 million pounds of copper. The revenue has more than doubled to $4 billion in 2005 compared to $1.7 billion in 2004. For the past 52 weeks the stock has gained 87% from $46.52 in June of 2005 to $86.96 on Friday of June 2, 2006.