HOT is NOT the place for intelligent discussion on stocks . It is however a good place the gauge retail sentiment on a particular stock...
Most if not all of your questions above can be had by doing your own research. I will touch on Q3 however. Gold miners are not known for giving out dividends... at this point in time Australian Gold miners that give out dividends EVN, NST and NCM etc.. are actually an exception and not the norm. The main reason for this is that Gold mining is:
1. A very capital intensive business. More so than any other sector including oil! Given a choice of drawing on debt, dillution or profits to fund capex. Most angel investors (and the board for that matter) in these companies will opt for profits.
2. The price of the underlying commodity (GOLD) is volatile. As a hedge most goldminers will keep cash on the side to acquire new mines when the tide goes out and we find out who's been swimming naked. Research what happend to north american miners (Barrick, Newmount and Glencore) foray in Australia a few years back with disastrous consequences due to debt and ill timing of investments.
3. A Gold miner as a percentage of your holding is really a hedge in your portfolio against extreme market turmoil. I would not call them growth investments. As such, when there is market turmoil everyone will seek out gold and gold miners into their portfolio. The last thing I want from a hedge is to give me my money back. What I want a hedge to do, is to protect me. The best way for a gold miner to protect me is to find more gold in the ground and for that to happen they need cash.
Just a minor comment on your first post above... a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush. Investing in the market to grow your wealth is a hard thing to do. Before you let that bird out into the bush please please DYOR. The stockmarket is a zero sum game in order for one to profit, another must lose. Just because we sliced up the pie so many times doesn't mean there will be plenty to go around... the pie actually gets smaller.
Hope you take on my comments above (and the others) in the most constructive way... I have yet to meet anyone that likes taking candy from a baby. We are all here to grow our money and knowing you are growing it at someone else expense is always a possibility.
AMI Price at posting:
89.3¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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