Last year the pandemic caused many
mining stocks
to reach record highs. When the economy started to fail, the price of metals and materials went up. This happened because of increased demand and shortages. The two most commonly traded mining niches this happened to are
gold stocks
and silver stocks. Gold and silver both reached record high prices in mid-2020.
So, where do things stand in 2021? Well, gold and silver started the year strong but then quickly pulled back. These metals often trade in a similar pattern. On the other hand, Silver saw some momentum in early February when retail investors hyped up the metal for a few days. Now gold and silver have been around a similar price point for a while. Gold is not bullish enough to reach about the $1800 per ounce price point. Gold has been able to stay within the $1700 per ounce price point for a while, though.
Why has gold stayed within this price point despite vaccine distribution being so strong? As you may know, gold often performs well when the dollar is slipping, or the economy is bad. Even though the economy is reopening, that is mainly happening in just the United States and a handful of countries. Even if everything reopened around the world tomorrow, a lot of damage has been done that will take time to repair. For this reason, gold has remained bullish enough to stay above $1700.
Top Mining Stocks To Watch
This isn’t to say there isn’t other great mining niches too though. Copper stocks have been performing very well recently. This metal is used in a variety of products and is very hard to replace with anything else. Electric vehicles in particular can often use hundreds of pounds of copper per car. This has caused the value of copper to skyrocket has demand grows in the market. Keeping all of this information on mining stocks in mind, let’s look at three that are moving up in the market.
-
McEwen Mining Inc. (
NYSE: MUX
) -
Teck Resources Limited (
NYSE: TECK
) -
Great Panther Mining Limited (
NYSE: GPL
)
McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX)
McEwen Mining Inc. checks all of the boxes we mentioned above. And by that, I mean it explores for gold, silver, and copper deposits. McEwen will engage in development, production and sales of the metals. Its main projects are the Gold Bar mine, Black Fox mine, and El Gallo Project among others.
When looking for mining stocks to watch, production results are very important. These results often tell part of the story for how a company is performing. In the first quarter of 2021, McEwen reported lower gold, silver, and GEOs numbers. On the surface, this doesn’t seem good. In actuality, the company expects all three of these categories to beat 2020’s numbers in their full year guidance.
MUX stock has gone up quite a bit since these results were released on April 19
th
. But when will we get the next update from McEwen Mining? The company just announced that its first quarter financial results will be released on May 10
th
, and with it will come project development updates as well. This is what investors of MUX stock should look out for as it may possibly touch its price.
Teck Resources Limited (NYSE: TECK)
Some investors prefer companies that mine for all different types of materials like Teck Resources Limited. Teck is an Asia, Europe, and North America based mining and exploration company. Its main products are copper, zinc, energy products, and steelmaking coal. But Teck will also produce gold, silver, and a variety of chemicals.
The demand for copper is growing around the globe at the moment. The largest of the demand comes from China, where the metal is now worth more than it was before the pandemic started. So it does not come as a surprise that this copper producer is performing well. But just how well is Teck performing in 2021?
On April 27
th
, we found out all we needed to know about the company’s recent performance. This is when Teck reported its unaudited first-quarter results for 2021. Its adjusted profit attributable to shareholders increased by an impressive 247% year over year to $326 million. Its adjusted EBITDA also went up to $967 million, an increase of 59% compared to last year. A lot of this can be attributed to Teck’s copper mining success. Up more than 130% in the last year, will TECK make your mining stock watchlist?
Great Panther Mining Limited (NYSE: GPL)
Great Panther Mining Limited is a precious metals exploration company with mines in Mexico, Brazil, and Canada where it is based. The company explores for gold, copper, silver, zinc, and lead ores. Its principal projects are the Tucano gold mine, the Guanajuato mine, and the Topia mine. This mining penny stock has seen significant growth because of rising metal prices.
While its stock growth has been great in the last year, investors were waiting on new updates from the company. April was not short of these updates, starting with its announcement that its Tucano plant now is capable of processing oxide and sulphide ore. The company then released its first quarter production results for the year towards the middle of the month. Its production results were looking low, but this could possibly be changing soon.
President and CEO Rob Henderson said, “The first quarter was planned to be a low production quarter due to heavy stripping. Production is expected to ramp up quarter-over-quarter for the remainder of the year as mining progresses into sectors with lower strip ratios.” Now Great Panther plans to release its first quarter financial results on May 5
th
. These financial results could dictate the future direction of this mining stock as it is important.
What Is Affecting Mining Stocks?
While there was a lot of talk about production and financial results, there are other things that affect mining stocks too. The most obvious of the bunch are current events, like the pandemic. For example, when unemployment is reported at high numbers, which it is right now, it hurts the economy. When the economy is hurt it can help push metals like gold and silver up in the market.
While it looks like economic recovery is closer in the United States, this is not the case worldwide. Take a look at India for example, which is a huge nation that has a horrible COVID problem at the moment. The global economy matters more than just the U.S. economy itself. So it is possible for metals like gold, silver, and copper among others to stay high as no signs of full global recovery are in a precise sightline. With all of this in mind, will you invest in mining stocks?