A Miner You've Probably Never Heard Of Could Yield Explosive Profits (BVN)

The mining sector is dominated by a few major players that most investors/traders are aware of. This article is about one you've probably never heard of, Compania de Minas Buenaventura SA (NYSE: BVN).

If you're looking for gold plays, the names that jump out at you are Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX), Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM), and Goldcorp (NYSE: GG).

If you're looking for copper, Freeport McMoran (NYSE: FCX) is the big player in the copper world.

BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP), Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) and Vale (NYSE: VALE) are the major one stop, commodity shops.

Compania de Minas Buenaventura SA encompasses all of this, as it mines gold, silver, zinc, lead, and copper and other metals in Peru.

Being one of the lesser known major miners, comes opportunity. It has a market cap of less than $10 billion, much smaller than the market caps of Rio Tinto or BHP.

Buenaventura reported earnings on July 31, reporting second-quarter net profit on Friday of $110.9 million. This was a 17% drop from the same period last year, as the company's mines had lower gold output and higher production costs.

BVN explained the drop in income as "mainly explained by a 23 percent fall in operating income and a 12 percent decrease in contributions from Yanacocha and Cerro Verde," the company said.

The company isn't trading at a particularly high growth rate, given the strong demand for its products. It trades at just a hair over 13 times forward earnings.

It also pays a pretty healthy dividend, yielding 1.5% at current prices.

In addition to strong fundamentals, technically BVN is also pretty solid, having been in a firm uptrend since the market panicked back in February.

You could also start to see some M&A in the mining space, as the major miners look to expand their portfolios and sustain growth to feed the needs of emerging markets. BVN is large enough that it could be a potential acquirer, and small enough that a major player could acquire it at a sizable premium.

If your portfolio is looking for some metals exposure, BVN is certainly worthy of a place in your portfolio.