Bigworld, With the individual miners, any idea what their bond ratings are, and for the mining sector in general? I assume they rely upon issuing bonds to some extent in order to fund their operations. If they are rated below investment grade (below BBB-, Baa3) it sounds like they won't be getting much/any help from the Fed's corporate bond assistance program.
It would be ironic to have a company with loads of valuable gold ore in the ground, but without the financial wherewithal to do anything with it. Having the refiners shutting down due to the virus also impacts the miners. A lot of factors to evaluate when owning individual stocks.
Looking up a few bond ratings -
Newmont Mining - Baa2 (March 2020), Baa2 this is the 2nd lowest level within the 'investment grade' category, by Moody's.
Kinross Gold - Baa3, upgraded from Ba1 (March 2020), Baa3 is the lowest level within the 'investment grade' category
Yamana Gold - Baa3 (Aug 2019), revised up from negative to stable, Baa3 is the lowest level in the 'investment grade' category by Moody's
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Hecla Mining - B3, upgraded from Caa1 (Jan 2020). These are not only junk bonds, but in the lower tiers of junk bonds.
Coeur Mining - Caa1, downgraded from B1 (May 2019), the C grades are the lowest levels of junk bonds, with only D being lower (bonds that are in default)
New Gold - B3, downgraded from B2 (Aug 2018), one grade above Caa1 within the junk scale
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Only Newmont, Kinross, and Yamana have bond ratings above the junk level, but only barely. The rest are mired in the lower levels of 'junk'.
