Major miners the stars of this earning season
October 25, 2007.
Greetings investors!
Well it’s easy to see who the big stars in mining have been this year: the majors.
Rio Tinto plc (FCX.NYSE) says its 3rd quarter earnings have more than doubled on sustained demand for metals. The stock price has gone from US$60 per share earlier this year (i.e. March) to over $112 as of this morning.
Around this time last year I was predicting great things for mining juniors; those have yet to materialize but I believe they will. I’m still waiting for stock prices to catch up to the rise in the physical prices of precious and base metals!
Rio tinto meanwhile is getting excited about aluminum, while BHP Billiton is high on iron.
Alcan of Canada tendered 79.4% of its shares to London-based Rio today at $101 each. That makes Rio Tinto the world’s largest aluminum producer, ahead of Russia’s UC RUSAL.
BHP meanwhile has announced record 1st quarter iron output along with a strong rise in copper production. Both companies remain bullish on copper due to projected Chinese demand though the flagging housing market in the U.S. has softened demand somewhat.
Iron, aluminum, copper … it’s all looking good as we head into 2008.
Kb
The BarkerLetter on October 25th 2007 in Commodity investing
