Gold price-fixing lawsuit dismissed in U.S. District Court in Boston

Gold strategists dig deeper for profit;
mining analysts point to small-fry companies

By Thom Calandra
CBS.MarketWatch.com
March 28, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO -- With spot gold above $300 an ounce, the
question becomes, what's still a steal? Very little, it turns out.

Established gold companies are trading at 10 to 15 times cash
flow. Smaller ones, like Durban Roodepoort in South Africa,
have become the new momentum stocks. This $3.50 stock is
up more than 200 percent from March 2001.

Wall Street's investment houses, meanwhile, are falling over
themselves to raise ratings on gold miners. One of the latest
was Deutsche Banc's improving of Freeport McMoran
Copper amp; Gold to quot;buyquot; from quot;market perform.quot;

James Dines, a newsletter editor who made his name as
the quot;original gold bugquot; in the early 1960s, says several
silver companies could lead the next stage of the precious
metals rally. These include Industriales Penoles Sa, a
South American silver producer. The over-the-counter
stock of Industriales Penoles has doubled since the start
of the year.

quot;The silver stocks are on fire,quot; says Dines of The Dines
Letter, whose newsletter recommends Coeur d'Alene
Mines, an Idaho silver company whose shares trade as
a dollar-stock on the New York Stock Exchange. Coeur
d'Alene mines in Idaho, Nevada, Alaska, Chile, and Bolivia.

An ounce of silver Thursday was selling for $4.68 in New
York futures trading. quot;Silver is poised to break to the
upside in a big way,quot; says Martin Pring of the International
Institute for Economic Research. Pring, a technical analyst,
says both gold and silver prices appear ready to spring far
higher in coming weeks and months.

Robert Bishop, longtime gold mining newsletter editor,
points to several Canadian junior companies, most of them
already soaring in price. When his clients say they're worried
about the expensive prices of mining stocks, Bishop, editor
of The Gold Mining Stock Report, is known to say, quot;If you
don't buy, it will cost you dearly. Just ask the people who
didn't believe in gold's prospects a year ago.quot;

Bishop, first and foremost, is a believer in the large,
unhedged producers of gold, Newmont, Gold Fields,
Harmony Gold, and Goldcorp. Among the world's major
producers of gold, shares of these companies have
largely led the pack in the past year.

Two or three notches down, Bishop says a gold rally,
with bullion surpassing $350 an ounce, would put the
rocket to the so-called exploration stocks, mostly
traded in Canada. These include Aurizon Mines, which
has a producing mine, First Point Minerals, and
quot;deal-in-waitingquot; Wheaton River Minerals.

To be sure, many of these names, their stocks already
having doubled and tripled in less than a year, may
disappoint recent buyers. With gold prices flirting with the
$300 level, current stock market prices are expensive
and almost certainly require further gains in the actual
metal.

For his part, Bishop is steadfast in his belief that small
exploration companies can turn geological success into
stock market profits. He points to microscopic Almaden
Minerals, which he says quot;offers more chances for
exploration success than any company I'm currently
following.quot; Almaden's stock market capitalization in
Canada is less than $10 million. It searches for gold,
silver, copper, and diamond deposits in Mexico and
across Canada and the Northwest Territories.

Adrian Day at newsletter Global Analyst in Annapolis,
Md., is a believer in Newmont Mining, world's largest
mining company and unhedged in its production. As
a fund manager and president of Global Strategic
Management, Day has been investing in gold stocks
for more than a decade.

quot;I'm holding back from broad buying at this point;
we're already loaded,quot; Day said Thursday. quot;For those
who have fairly good exposure to good seniors, I'm
looking further down the food chain.quot;

These include Almaden Minerals, which has a quot;broad
range of properties.quot; Day says Almaden's exploration
efforts quot;will respond well to any success.quot; He also
points to Canyon Resources, which has a producing
property in California.

Day says Virginia Mines, a Quebec exploration company,
has almost half its stock market value in cash and
seven drill programs planned this year in the search
for the precious metal we call gold.

At Gold Mining Stock Report, Bishop's analysis of
precious metals and their mining advocates has led
him to countless exploration sites around the world
in the past 20 years.

quot;Just as gold attaining $850 an ounce 22 years ago
was a speculative extreme, the more recent attainment
of almost $250 was an overshoot of the pendulum in
the other direction,quot; he told his clients Thursday.
quot;A more normal free-market price probably lies
somewhere in between.quot;