What's Up with Gold: Plus, the Largest Crystalline Gold Nugget in the World

The Crown Jewel Gold Nugget

A couple weeks ago, I was at the Ironstone Vineyards in Murphys, California, where they have a gold rush museum. One of the highlights of the museum is 'The Crown Jewel', also known as the Kautz Crystalline Gold nugget, the largest crystalline gold nugget in the world, a very rare form of gold. This nugget weighs 44 pounds. If you are ever in the California Gold Country, you should certainly check it out.

So what has been happening with gold lately? Not much if you look at the price of gold over the twelve months. The SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) have dropped 6.16% over the last year, whereas the S&P 500 is up about 15% over the same time frame.

If you are a contrarian and think that now be the time to acquire some gold, you may want to consider gold mining stocks, as there are almost two dozen that pay dividends, according to the free list of high yield gold and silver stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. Almost ten of these stocks have yields in excess of 2%.

Barrick Gold (ABX) trades at 14 times future earnings, and pays a yield of 1.2%. The company, based in Ontario, Canada, has mines in North America, South America, Africa, and Australia.

Newmont Mining (NEM) has mines in Australia, New Zealand, North and South America, and Africa. It trades at 16.5 times forward earnings and pays a dividend rate of 0.4%, payable quarterly.

Silver Wheaton (SLW) pays a yield of 1.3%, payable quarterly.

For a free list of high yield gold and silver stocks go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

Gold is Up 11% in the Last Month and a Half: Top Income Gold Stocks

Do you realize that in the last month and a half, the price of gold has risen 11%, whereas the S&P 500 has only gone up by 3.3% over the same period of time. The share prices of gold mining companies have also started taking off. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) is up 18.1%, and the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) up 26.1%.

Investors can not only achieve capital appreciation on their gold mining shares but also dividend income from certain companies, as yields on these stocks are fairly high, compared to what you could receive from a bank account. Keep in mind though that some of the gold mining companies link their dividends to the price of gold, and even those that don't could easily cut their dividends if the price of bullion drops. According to the free list of high yield gold mining stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, there are over 20 gold stocks that pay out dividend yields, ranging from 0.4% to over 6%.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) is a major producer in the precious metals sector. The world's largest publicly traded copper company, it also mines for gold, molybdenum, cobalt, silver, and several other metals. This Phoenix, Arizona based miner has operations in North America, South America, Indonesia, and Africa. The stock trades at 12 times trailing earnings and 10 times forward earnings. Earnings for the latest quarter were down 4.8% on a revenue boost of 30.4%. The stock pays a very generous 3.9% yield, and dividends are paid quarterly.

Another high yield gold company is Yamana Gold, Inc. (AUY), a Toronto, Ontario, Canada based miner which explores for and produces gold, copper, molybdenum, zinc, and silver, from its properties in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. The stock trades at 25 times trailing earnings and 24 times forward earnings. The latest quarterly revenues were down 33.2%. The stock pays a CD beating yield of 1.5%. Dividends for this company are also paid out quarterly.

For more of a silver play, there is Silver Wheaton Corp. (SLW), the Vancouver, Canada company which yields 1.4%. The stock has a trailing P/E ratio of 21 and a forward P/E of 28. Quarterly revenues were up 3.2% but earnings dropped 35.6%.

The yields on these stocks can help reduce some of the volatility and return your capital quicker. Just remember, that companies can reduce (or increase) their dividend payouts at any time. For a list of the other high yield gold and silver mining stocks, which can be downloaded, sorted, and updated, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.
 
By Stockerblog.com

Top Yielding Gold and Silver Stocks

Marc Faber, the famed investment advisor and fund manager, who has been referred to in the past as 'Doctor Doom', believes that we may be headed to a stock market crash, yet the gold mining stock sector is oversold and worth buying.
Gold and silver mining stocks have recently been depressed but rebounded sharply on Friday. If Faber is correct, then investors can not only achieve capital appreciation on their shares but also dividend income, as yields on these stocks are fairly high, compared to what you could receive from a bank account. Keep in mind though that some of the gold mining companies link their dividends to the price of gold, and even those that don't could easily cut their dividends if the price of bullion continues to drop. According to the free list of high yield gold mining stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com, there are over 20 gold stocks that pay out dividend yields, ranging from 0.4% to over 6%.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) is a major producer in the precious metals sector. The world's largest publicly traded copper company, it also mines for gold, molybdenum, cobalt, silver, and several other metals. This Phoenix, Arizona miner has operations in North America, South America, Indonesia, and Africa. The stock trades at 11.3 times trailing earnings and 10.1 times forward earnings. Earnings for the latest quarter were down 32% on a revenue drop of 4%. The stock pays a very generous 4.0% yield, and dividends are paid quarterly.
Another high yield gold company is Yamana Gold, Inc. (AUY), a Toronto, Ontario, Canada based miner which explores for and produces gold, copper, molybdenum, zinc, and silver, from its properties in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. The stock trades at 22.8 times trailing earnings and 16.6 times forward earnings. The latest quarterly revenues were down 19.6%. The stock pays a CD beating yield of 2.7%. Dividends for this company are also paid out quarterly.
For more of a solver play, there is Silver Wheaton Corp. (SLW), the Vancouver, Canada company which yields 2.1%. The stock has a trailing P/E ratio of 14.5 and a forward P/E of 19.4. Revenues were actually up 3.1% but earnings dropped 9.3%.
The yields on these stocks can help reduce some of the volatility and return your capital quicker. Just remember, that companies can reduce (or increase) their yields at any time. For a list of the other high yield gold and silver mining stocks, which can be downloaded, sorted, and updated, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.
Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.
By Stockerblog.com

Image courtesy of ponsulak / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Why Silver May Be a Better Investment than Gold

Are you thinking of investing your money into a metal such as gold or silver? There are benefits to both, but silver may be the better way to go.

First, let’s face the fact that the difference between silver and gold prices is vast. Silver, one of the major natural resources, is much more in demand compared to gold, due to its industrial usage. Silver has many uses, everything from circuit boards to coinage to dentistry to cloud seeding to medicine. Approximately 600 million ounces of silver is mined every year, but the demand for silver is around 900 million ounces per year. The United States Mint has limited the amount of coins consumers can buy due to the massive growth in demand for the metal.

There are only a couple of way of producing silver: recycling and mining. The deeper the mine the more expensive it is to extract silver. There are several smaller mining companies which have recently become profitable due to the higher price of silver. The higher price also allows the companies to open new mines that were previously not profitable to develop.

One way investors can invest in silver is through one of the metals ETFs. For example, ETFS Physical Silver Shares (SIVR) has direct ownership of silver. E-TRACS UBS Bloomberg CMCI Silver ETN (USV) is designed to track the entire liquid forward curve of the silver contracts, by buying silver futures.

If you prefer the silver mining stocks, which can give you a better bang for the buck, check out Global X Silver Miners ETF (SIL) that invests in a basket of worldwide companies involved in the silver mining industry. Some of the ETF's largest holdings include Silver Wheaton (SLW), Fresnillo (FNLPF.PK), Industrias Penoles (IPOAF.PK), Hochschild Mining (HCHDF.PK), and Polymetal.

For a free list of silver and gold ETFs, which can be downloaded, sorted, and changed, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Author does not own any of the above.