FinancialEdge: Diamonds Are No Longer BHP's Best Friends

In a market where it seems everyone wants to speculate on the next acquisition, major global mining conglomerate BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) is publicly considering a different strategy. While BHP stands with Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) and Xstrata as among the world's most diversified natural resource companies, BHP has publicly announced that it is reviewing the future of its diamond mining operations.

More specifically, BHP will be evaluating whether to keep or sell assets including the EKATI mine and the Chidiak project in Northern Canada. At present, BHP owns 80% of EKATI and 51% of Chidiak.

Why BHP is Likely to Sell
While a final announcement probably won't come until January of 2012, BHP is almost certain to look for the exit with this business. BHP, like most large miners, wants to focus on large, long-lived, expandable asset bases. To that end, this diamond business just doesn't fit the bill.

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http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1211/Diamonds-Are-No-Longer-BHPs-Best-Friend.aspx#axzz1gFWhcqZM

FinancialEdge: 5 Investment Ideas Heating Up Right Now

Give Wall Street a little credit - if there is a demand for a product, they will meet it. If there is no demand for a product, they will figure out how to create that demand. With investors back out of their bunkers and looking to put money to work, Wall Street and Main Street have been working overtime to meet that demand. While not all of these ideas are new per se, many are seeing a resurgence in investor interest, and new themes and sub-types are emerging to siphon off some of that demand. (To learn more, check out The Wall-Street Animal Farm: Getting To Know The Lingo.)

Gold
The idea that gold is pretty popular these days is hardly new, but gold bugs are getting increasingly inventive. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX) has lagged the SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE: GLD) of late, but the Market Vectors Junior Gold Miners ETF (Nasdaq: GDXJ) has been hot.

Going a step further, would-be investors are apparently trying to get more of the actual metal in their hands. Demand for minted gold coins continues to run hot, with many mints forced to limit order sizes to see that no customer goes away entirely empty-handed. And now this - gold-dispensing ATMs are on their way to the U.S. 


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http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1110/5-Investment-Ideas-That-Are-Trending.aspx