Here’s our Pick of the Month – New Gold – Toronto Symbol NGD

Article Excerpt

NEW GOLD $2.18 (Toronto symbol NGD; SI Rating: Speculative) (888-315-9715; www.newgold.com; Shares outstanding: 212.8 million; Market cap: $463.9 million) has agreed to buy Western Goldfields (symbol WGI on Toronto) in a $292-million friendly takeover offer. New Gold is offering one of its shares and $0.0001 in cash for each share of Western Goldfields. New Gold will issue a total of 135 million shares to pay for the purchase. New Gold already owns and operates the Cerro San Pedro gold/silver mine in Mexico, which is expected to produce between 90,000 and 100,000 ounces of gold this year. The same amount is forecast for New Gold’s Peak mine in Australia. Western Goldfields’ sole asset is the Mesquite mine in Imperial County, California. The mine started production last year, and is forecast to produce 140,000 to 150,000 ounces of gold this year. With the Western Goldfields purchase, New Gold expects to produce a total of about 335,000 ounces of gold in 2009, and more than 400,000…