NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Following India’s decision to buy 200 tonnes of IMF gold, the prices of the yellow metal is in kissing distance of $1100 and this has given a push to the gold mining companies’ shares.

Looking at stocks with a market value of at least $10m, junior gold stocks are among the cream, with Ventana Gold, which has registered a stock price gain of more than 26,000% in less than 12 months.

Ventana is busy drilling at La Bodega in Colombia, and currently carries an eye-popping market value of $902m. La Bodega appears to be an extension of Greystar’s Angostura project, which for some considerable time has held 15m ounces of gold resources, with expansions likely. Greystar carries a more modest market value of $341m, and is not much in demand at this point in time.

Further smaller gold names in very strong demand include North American listed Romarco, Metallic Venture, Tara Gold, Philex Gold, Minefinders, West Timmins, Centerra, Western Copper, and London-listed Norseman Gold, an Australian gold digger.

Among global top gold stocks, strongest demand is being shown for Newmont and also Barrick, which have both recently published encouraging quarterly results showing an increasing ability to generate free cash flow.

There is also good demand for Goldcorp and also diversified metals producers Freeport-McMoRan and Buenaventura, and also Yamana, Russia’s Polyus, Australia’s leading gold digger in Newcrest, that country’s No 2 gold name in Lihir, and Johannesburg-based transnational gold miner AngloGold Ashanti.

In the second rung, gold names in strong demand include the likes of Centerra, Eldorado, Red Back, Iamgold and Randgold Resources.
(Source: Mineweb.com)