Billionaires Seeing Gold in Their Top Mining Stocks

With eight billionaires holding a total investment of $400.51 million, Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) occupies the second spot. In comparison, seven billionaires held $455.75 million worth of Barrick Gold’s stock in their fund’s equity portfolios at the end of last year. Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies trimmed its stake in Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) by 5% during the first quarter to 13.36 million shares valued at $146.39 million. The $14.34 billion mining company promised its shareholders that it would reduce its debt by at least $3 billion by the end of this year. With regards to that, Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX) has sold a stake in its Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea to China’s Zijin Mining, thereby formulating a partnership with the company as well. Barrick Gold also sold its Cowal mine in Australia for $550 million, bringing the total proceeds from the two sales to $1 billion. Although down by nearly 30% over the past year, Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (NYSE:ABX)’s stock has returned about 8.9% so far in 2015.

Lastly we come to Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM), which also has the backing of eight billionaires, who hold $246.66 million of the company’s shares in their portfolios, up from seven billionaires with $215.09 million as of the previous reporting period. Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM)’s stock is up by a staggering 40.4% so far this year. The company was recently upgraded by Bank of America to a ‘Neutral’ rating from an ‘Underperform’ one. Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM) agreed to sell its Waihi gold mining operation in New Zealand to OceanaGold for about $106 million. Both D E Shaw and Israel Englander‘s Millennium Management increased their stakes in Newmont Mining Corp (NYSE:NEM) by 4% during the first three months of the year, to 2.67 million shares valued and 2.56 million shares respectively.

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