So, you’e a cashflow investor. And you want to be a part of the commodities boom. The problem is that a lot of agriculture and resource stocks don’t pay dividends. Many of them can’t, I imagine, because they’re capital-heavy and need to reinvest all funds into their future projects because the products that make them profits take years to come to market. Also, there are a lot of start-up companies in this resource boom that are trying to take advantage of opportunities with China’s growing economy — companies like Spur Ventures. Such outfits won’t be paying a dividend, if at all, for a long time.

So you might be surprised, once you’re disgruntled enough with low distributions from your metals ETFs, that certain mining stocks do pay dividends - even if the yields can be quite small. Rather than making pennies from the ETF - and paying small management fees to do it - you might be better off just buying the gold and silver companies you like. And the dividends could be higher, too. I’ve done some of the legwork for you. Here’s my list of the

top eleven gold mining stocks that pay dividends:*

Gold Fields Limited (GFI:NYSE) - Price: 11.15 - Yield - 1.5%
Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX: NYSE) - Price: 117.03 - Yield - 1.5%
Rio Tinto PLC (RTP: NYSE) - Price: 479.00 - Yield: 1.4%**
BHP Billiton Ltd (BHP: NYSE) - Price: 83.62 - Yield: 1.39%**
Newmont Mining Corp (NEM: NYSE) - Price: 48.95 - Yield: 0.82%
Yamana Gold Inc. (YRI: TSX) - Price: 14.89 - Yield: 0.80%
Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX: TSX) - Price: 40.96 - Yield: 0.70%
Goldcorp Inc. (G: TSX) - Price: 41.37 - Yield: 0.40%
AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU: NYSE) - Price: 29.96 - Yield: 0.44%
Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited (AEM: TSX) - Price: 66.02 - Yield: 0.30%***
Kinross Gold Corporation (K: TSX) - Price: 19.87 - Yield: 0.20%

*All share prices are approximate, taken as of last Friday’s (June 20th, 2008) close. For simplicity’s sake, I’ve just quickly “ranked” these by their dividend yields. You’ll have your own criteria, of course.
**Runs its own DRIP but has high fees, though, for reinvests and OCPs.
***Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. also runs their own DRIP. No fees, but it is, however, less convenient than most DRIPs - they only allow optional cash purchases once a year and they only reinvest their dividends once a year (because they only pay dividends once a year, usually in March. If you don’t mind keeping up with the timing, though, and you can invest a good chunk at a time, the DRIP could still suit you just fine).

There are other large gold companies of course, like Harmony Gold, but they do not pay dividends. You should note that if you’re looking to buy gold and silver stocks directly, now might be a good time - many of them are down considerably from their 52-week highs (even Rio Tinto is currently only trading around 80% of its yearly high!).

What do you think?  Are you invested in gold stocks?  Think they’re not worth it?  I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.  You also might be interested in reading my posts on silver stocks.  If you liked this article, subscribe to my RSS feed for updates and more articles like it when I cover gold stocks in the future.  Just go to the little orange square tab that you see in the floating sidetab, or beneath my site’s logo.

Here’s an unusual change in focus that reflects the urgency of the world’s food needs: what was primarily a metals and minerals company has at least temporarily expanded into agriculture.

Hinterland Metals (HMI: TSX.V)) announced this week that it has applied for an exploration license for potash in the area of Malagawatch near Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Apparently, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (POT) is already mining potash not too far away near Sussex, New Brunswick. Since the Malagawatch deposits were first identified in 1978, it’s amazing that they haven’t been mined before now.

Given the Chinese demand for potash right now, Hinterland is definitely one mining stock to watch. It was trading around 0.19 (CAD) on Friday, down quite a bit from its 52-week high of 0.30. This means it’s on sale, and I am sure the price won’t stay here long if they start pulling out any sizeable amounts of that power ingredient in fertilizer. They do not pay a dividend. Normally I am not that interested in stocks without dividends, not because I am afraid of taking on more risk or excitement, but because I invest for cashflow. The current agriculture boom, however, is an exceptional historical situation and has me looking at certain growth stocks well positioned to provide the solutions that will be needed in the industry. Hinterland could be one of them.

If you’re bullish on fuel-cells, you might want to invest in the Platinum Group Metals (platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium)

Hinterland has met with quite a bit of success in the last six months, finding and mining platinum and palladium deposits in Quebec over a three-month period, as well as finding copper and nickel on the same property. This past April they also found more gold and silver in one of their Ontario properties. I’m no mining expert, but it looks like they’re on a tear. And of course, if fuel-cell cars and other fuel-cell-powered devices such as generators take off, platinum and related metals will be even more in demand since they are used in fuel-cell manufacturing.

They have an email update list that you can subscribe to from their website, which, aside from the news releases, has a few places where it’s not frequently updated.

Hinterland Metals’ transfer agent is Computershare Canada.

If you are interested in this topic and would like to read more about it, subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the little orange square you see below my site’s logo or on the floating sidetab).  And if you’re already invested in similar stocks I’d love (and so would other readers) to hear your opinions here in the comments section below.  What’s happening with resource stocks lately?  They’ve gone down a bit temporarily.  Let me know what you think.  And thanks for reading!