Topic: How To Invest

Pat: What do you think of Mercator Minerals as a stock purchase?

Article Excerpt

Mercator Minerals, $2.92, symbol ML on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 177.9 million; Market cap: $519.4 million), is a mining company that owns one producing mine: the Mineral Park mine near Kingman, Arizona. Mercator is in the process of expanding Mineral Park’s copper and molybdenum production capacity from 25,000 tonnes per day to 50,000 tonnes per day. The mine’s revenues are expected to come 58% from molybdenum, 41% from copper and 1% from silver. Mercator just announced that it has purchased Stingray Copper (symbol SRY on Toronto) for $43.6 million. The purchase will let Mercator diversify its asset base by adding Stingray’s El Pilar copper mine in Sonora State, Mexico. To pay for Stingray, Mercator recently raised $80.5 million by selling new shares for $2.60 each. The company’s expansion, plus the Stingray acquisition, should let Mercator report cash flow of as much as $0.44 U.S. a share next year, and as much as $0.80 U.S. a share in 2011. The stock trades at…