The mining sector has been one of the market's worst performing sectors during the past month, with the S&P/TSX Global Mining Index falling 11.1%, compared to the S&P 500's decline of 1.6%.


Nevertheless, as is the mantra of famous value investors like Warren Buffett, the time to buy is when there's blood on the streets. And right now there are plenty of opportunities within the mining sector for investors to take advantage of. Here's a selection of miners that score highly in the StockRanks.


Biggest is best


The price of iron ore has collapsed 41% so far this year, no good news for iron ore producers. However, iron ore miner and one of the world's largest mining companies, Rio Tinto is not worried. At present, the company has a StockRank of 98, thanks to the fact it's relatively cheap (ValueRank 78) and has strong price and earnings Momentum (90). The company trades at a forward P/E of 9.0 compared to the industry mean of 13.7 and supports a dividend yield of 4.5% compared to the industry mean of 2.2%.


As one of the world's largest mining companies, Rio is able to achieve impressive economies of scale, which translates into a high QualityRank of 88. For example, Rio is able to mine iron ore, its key commodity at a price as low as $21 per tonne, compared to many competitors which mine at costs in excess of around $60 per tonne. As a result, Rio has an industry leading return on capital (industry median: -9.0% vs. RIO: 7.0%) and operating margin (industry median: -4.8% vs. RIO: 13.8%).


Small-cap market


In the small-cap part of the mining sector, Gem Diamonds scores highly in the StockRanks with a ranking of 98. The company has a three month relative strength of 36.5% - strongly outperforming the market. Gem outperforms its peers on many quality metrics. Specifically, the company's ROCE (19.3%) is the 8th highest in the metals and mining industry. Further, Gem's operating margin (34.6%) is 424% higher than the market average (6.6%).


These sector-leading qualities can be attributed to the company's business of mining and selling diamonds, which is a specialist, but highly lucrative operation. The company's EBITDA margin was 47% for…

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