According to Surowiecki's research, a motivated, independent-minded group can come up with the right answer and be smarter than even the smartest single member of the group. To test that, we asked investors to tell us their three favorite companies and then aggregated the results to determine which ones the group thought could outperform the market itself.
The top three—First Majestic Silver Corp. (FR:TSX; AG:NYSE; FMV:FSE), Silver Wheaton Corp. (SLW:TSX; SLW:NYSE) and Hecla Mining Co. (HL:NYSE)—were the clear crowd favorites. All had recently reported news. First Majestic, fresh off the acquisition of SilverCrest Mines Inc., now has six producing mines in Mexico and projected output at 11–11.2 million ounces (11–11.2 Moz) by the end of the year. Silver Wheaton, which reported record production in Q3/15 of 11 Moz silver equivalent, recently announced it had added a 140 Moz silver stream from Glencore's producing Antamina mine. Hecla Mining, which is getting ready to celebrate its 125th anniversary, recently announced that it would begin open-pit mining by the end of 2015 at the San Sebastian project in Durango, Mexico.
Other companies that came to the conference with news include:
Balmoral Resources Ltd. (BAR:TSX; BAMLF:OTCQX) brought results from a new nickel-copper intercept based on ongoing exploration at the Grasset project in Quebec and confirmation of a new gold bearing fault on the Martiniere property in the Bug Lake Gold Trend.
Bear Creek Mining Corp. (BCM:TSX.V) issued an updated optimized feasibility study on its silver-lead-zinc project in Peru over the summer that Silver Summit speaker and Silver Investor founder David Morgan said "exceeded his initial expectations."
Columbus Gold Corp. (CGT:TSX.V; CBGDF:OTCQX) had drill results that, according to company chairman and CEO Robert Giustra, "indicate that gold mineralization at Eastside [gold discovery in Nevada] is considerably more widespread than previously understood."
Great Panther Silver Ltd. (GPR:TSX; GPL:NYSE.MKT) was still on a high after announcing Q3/15 revenues that were 31% higher than the previous year. Because of that and "potential growth through the drill bit and marginal silver operations highly levered to rising metals prices," Gold Newsletter writer Brien Lundin called the company "a good value at current levels."
MAG Silver Corp. (MAG:TSX; MVG:NYSE) flew to San Francisco days after reporting Q3/15 financial results that showed working capital of $77.68 million and no debt, enough cash to fund the next 12 months of projects. Additionally, drill results from the Juanicipio project with Fresnillo Plc (FRES:LSE) indicate a possible "ore-fluid upwelling zone, which could open up a new exploration target zone."
Newmarket Gold Inc. (NMI:TSX; NMKTF:OTCQX) announced that in the wake of a merger with Crocodile Gold, it had delivered record production of 169,491 ounces (169,491 oz) from three Australian mines over the first nine months of the year with operating cash costs reduced to $700–750/oz.
Quaterra Resources Inc. (QTA:TSX.V; QTRRF:OTCQX) announced results from the first core hole in the Bear copper deposit in Yerington, Nevada. It included an intercept of 1,157 feet of 0.42% copper along with some molybdenum, gold and silver.
Victoria Gold Corp. (VIT:TSX.V) was in the final stages of closing a flow-through private placement to raise $1.75 million to explore the Olive and Shamrock targets at the Dublin Gulch project in the Yukon.
What were your favorite companies at the Silver Summit? Share in the comments below.
Read more company recommendations in The Gold Report interview "Rob McEwen, the Investor, Has Some Advice for Mining Executives Everywhere."
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DISCLOSURE:
1) The following companies mentioned in the interview are sponsors of Streetwise Reports: Bear Creek Mining Corp., Balmoral Resources Ltd., Great Panther Silver Ltd., Columbus Gold Corp., Silver Wheaton Corp., MAG Silver Corp., Newmarket Gold Inc., Quaterra Resources Inc. and Victoria Gold Corp. The companies mentioned in this interview were not involved in any aspect of the interview preparation or post-interview editing so the expert could speak independently about the sector. Streetwise Reports does not accept stock in exchange for its services.
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