Metals and Mining Sector: How Companies Performed on July 28

On July 28, stocks related to base metals fell, while precious metal miners remained mixed. At 3:45 PM EST, base metal ETFs such as the PowerShares DB Base Metals (DBB) and the SPDR S&P Metals & Mining ETF (XME) gained ~1.4% and ~1.1%. The SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) fell ~0.34%.

Barrick Gold (ABX) is the largest gold miner. It confirmed the sale of the Super Pit gold mine in Kalgoorlie. The Super Pit mine is jointly owned by Barrick Gold and Newmont Mining (NEM)—Barrick Gold owns 50%. So far, Barrick Gold lowered its debt by ~$970 million in 2016. The sale of its stake in the Super Pit mine will accelerate its debt reduction process. According to Barrick, this open-pit mine is expected to produce 700,000–730,000 ounces of gold in 2016 at an average cost of $650–$700 per ounce. Since the beginning of 2016, Barrick Gold has gained close to ~180%. At 11:30 AM EST on July 28, it was trading at $20.98—a drop of ~1.7%.

Below are the top five companies in the gold industry on July 28.

• Exeter Resource (XRA) rose by ~7.4%
• International Tower Hill Mines (THM) rose by ~7.7%
• Vista Gold (VGZ) rose by ~3.8%
• Golden Star Resources (GSS) rose by ~3.7%
• Tanzanian Royalty Exploration (TRX) rose by ~3.5%

Below are the bottom five companies in the gold industry on Thursday, July 28

• Solitario Exploration & Royalty (XPL) fell by ~1.4%
• Banro (BAA) fell by ~4.5%
• Timmins Gold (TGD) fell by ~1.5%
• DRDGOLD (DRD) fell by ~3.3%
• Goldcorp (GG) fell by ~5.9%