Gold has big year in 2020 and outlook for this year robust. Learn about monetary expansion and gold future prices.Read More

The gold futures price reached US$1,767/ounce this week before retreating, which was the second time it has surpassed US$1,760 in the past two months, marking some of gold's highest levels in several years.Read More

The European Central Bank, or ECB, ushered in a new era by launching an aggressive bond-buying program in January. The euro zone is one of the global economy's biggest trouble spots. And this move shifts pressure onto political leaders to restore prosperity in the region. So posits John Stephenson, president and CEO of Stephenson & Company Capital Management in Toronto and a regular contributor to...Read More

We continue to include Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (TSX?"EURPOT; NYSE?"EURPOT), among our best buys for income.In December we wrote, "It's important to hold some resources stocks for proper diversification. The trouble is most commodity prices have fallen." Many commodity producers cut their dividends. As we wrote, "In Potash Corp.'s case, however, its earnings exceed the dividends. As a result,...Read More

Mention Tahoe and you might think of the lake - specifically, the resort on the California-Nevada border that's popular with skiers.And although Michael Curran, Toronto-based managing director and research analyst at Beacon Securities, may have hit Tahoe's slopes, he's now likely more interested in how much silver Tahoe Resources Inc. (TSX?"EURTHO) is going to dig up at its Escobal mine in Guatema...Read More

Oil prices have plummeted since June, 2014. Other commodity prices have declined. This has hurt the share prices of the producers. Oil companies are a lot cheaper than they were. The same is true of many mining companies that we review.Even so, we continue to rate some of the larger and more diversified producers as buys. This is true of Key stocks Imperial Oil, Suncor Energy and Teck Resources as...Read More

Among U.S.-based mining companies that focus primarily on producing silver, Coeur Mining, Inc. (TSX-CDE; NYSE-CDE) is the largest. It is also a growing gold producer. As with other silver and gold producers, Coeur's financial results and shares have tumbled in recent years, along with commodity prices.Deutsche Bank analyst Jorge Beristain says the slumping price of silver, combined with Coeur's ri...Read More

PotashCorp (TSX-POT; NYSE-POT) is a buy for long-term price gains and high dividends that have risen each year since 2010.Potash says it is "the world's largest crop nutrient company and plays an integral role in global food production. The company produces the three essential nutrients required to help farmers grow healthier, more abundant crops. Potash is the largest producer, by capacity, of po...Read More

Over the past few decades, Steven Hudson started two businesses: Newcourt Capital and, later on, a hair club for men and women. So, now that he's started a third business, you might say he's in his element.Especially since this third company is actually called Element Financial Corp. (EFN-TSX).Be that as it may, John Stephenson likes what Mr. Hudson has done. Mr. Stephenson is president and CEO...Read More

Headquartered in Toronto, Barrick Gold Corporation is the world's biggest gold producer, boasting a range of operations around the globe. But for Deutsche Bank analysts Jorge Beristain and Wilfredo Ortiz, Barrick (ABX-TSX; ABX-NYSE) has lost some luster.Not only are they downgrading the mega miner to a "hold" from a buy, but they're cutting their 12-month price target to C$16 from C$22 a share....Read More

Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin is one of the world's leading engineering and construction groups and a major owner of infrastructure. It provides services in a variety of sectors including oil and gas, mining and metallurgy, environment and water, infrastructure and power. And now it is doing a big restructuring of its own operations.It is downsizing and cutting 4,000 jobs which will cost it money in...Read More

Gold may stay low. We still see more factors working against it than for it. Though you might hold a little gold for diversification purposes, remember its drawbacks.In November, gold fell below US$1,200 an ounce. This is far below the peak price of $1,908 an ounce it reached on August 22, 2011. We still see more factors working against gold than for it.One factor working against gold is selling b...Read More

To avoid risk, think like a trader, says Ken Norquay, a Hamilton, Ontario-based Chartered Market Technician (CMT) and author of Beyond the Bull, a book about behavioral finance and the impact of your personality on your long-term investments.In the wake of the financial crisis, U.S. stock markets hit a low in March, 2009. But in the five and a half years since then, they have been going up. The S&...Read More

When it comes to running a tight ship, you'd be hard-pressed to ask for a better precious metals miner than Yamana Gold Inc. (YRI-TSX).For starters, it remains in the lowest quartile of the industry cost curve, notes Anita Soni, a mining analyst with Credit Suisse in Toronto.Moreover, Yamana obviously knows where to allocate its resources, given that in its most recent quarter, 85 per cent of its...Read More

If there's one thing Teck Resources Ltd. (TCK.B-TSX) knows how to do, it's how to tread water.That's what Jorge Beristain, Wilfredo Ortiz and Jeremy Kliewer might tell you. They're analysts with Deutsche Bank Markets Research in New York.And they note that despite a worldwide glut of metallurgical coal, Teck, which mines that commodity, is continuing to look at ways of cutting costs until inventor...Read More

More and more, it seems, people are waking up to the importance of graphite.Some of this simply reflects its increased demand as a raw material in the manufacture of brake pads, aerospace components and many other products. But graphite is also attracting attention for its increased use in new high-tech applications, according to Mike Kachanovsky, a freelance writer and analyst of junior mining an...Read More

Teck Resources Limited (TSX-TCK.B) is a diversified resource company with business units focused on copper, steelmaking, coal, zinc and energy. The company owns or has an interest in 13 mines in Canada, the U.S., Chile and Peru, as well as one large metallurgical complex and a wind power facility in Canada.Teck's financial results depend on prices for the commodities it produces, sells and uses in...Read More

We don't usually think of companies like Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan (TSX-POT) as bargain stocks. But about a year ago Russia's Uralkali quit one of the world's two big potash cartels precipitating a world-wide price war for this vital crop nutrient and driving down the share prices of companies that produce it.But Saskatoon-based PotashCorp has been recovering and since March its shares ha...Read More

Christos Doulis, an analyst with Western Canadian-based PI Financial, is giving top billing to Premier Gold Mines Limited. (PG-TSX) adding it to his coverage list as a "speculative buy."He's also handing it a 12-month price target of $3.75 a share. He writes:An exploration and development outfit focused on North America, Premier boasts multiple gold projects in proven mining districts.In addition...Read More

We live in an era of celebrity athletes, judges, CEOs - even celebrity chefs.But there are few geologists who've become household names.Except Charles "Chuck" Fipke. He's one person who seems to have reached celebrityhood in the mining industry. Indeed, his accomplishments are legendary, according to Mike Kachanovsky, a Lindsay, Ontario-based writer specializing in junior mining stocks.Mr. Fipke w...Read More

Not too long ago, this advisory sold its remaining stake in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT-NYSE, $77.11) at the $56 US level for a tidy profit. As editor Barry S. Arnold sees things, consumers are still too strapped for cash thanks to the jobless recovery, high utility bills after an unusually harsh winter and ObamaCare sticker shock. He acknowledges that banks are loosening their tight reins on consu...Read More

With a big turnaround in the mining sector, mineral producers could regain much of what's been lost since the highs of 2011In the business of determining if the glass is half full, or half empty, mining companies often make good case studies.That's because the difference isn't always clear-cut. There are, after all, many parts to the equation.For starters, precious metals prices over the past few...Read More