The mining industry is prone to swinging from wild, reckless optimism to despairing panic in almost precisely the amount of time it takes to build a mine. Therefore, when you find companies promising to dole out cash to shareholders while pursuing growth in a cautious manner, it is worth taking a look.
Centamin controls the Sukari goldmine in Egypt and is drilling holes to see what it can find in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. It has no debt, does not hedge its production and the most intense period of investment at Sukari is already behind it. Those factors meant Centamin was ideally placed to take advantage of the surge in gold prices in the first half of last year. Its shares more than doubled