Soros Fund buys more and more PotashCorp shares

The same George Soros who favored energy stocks a year ago now is apparently bullish on the future of PotashCorp, despite recent cutbacks in potash sales due to the decline in the global economy.

Author: Dorothy Kosich
Posted: Wednesday , 18 Nov 2009

RENO, NV -

Billionaire investor George Soros' Soros Fund Management substantially raised its shares in PotashCorp as well as invested in gold ETFs during the third quarter.

In Form 13F documents filed with the SEC, Soros Fund raised its PotashCorp from 1.98 million shares to 2.95 million shares with a fair market value of $266.4 million.

The fund's gold equity holdings include Great Basin Gold as Soros increased its holdings in the company from 2.03 million shares to 3 million shares during the third quarter with a fair market value of $4.56 million.

Soros' NovaGold holdings stayed the same at 2.62 million shares with a fair market value of $13.4 million. However, the fund's Yamana Gold holdings fell from 607,500 shares with a fair market value of $5.4 million in the second quarter to 25,000 shares in the third quarter at a fair market value of $268,000.

Soros also slightly increased its Allied Nevada Gold Corp holdings from 2.3 million shares with a fair market value of $18.8 million during the second quarter to 2.6 million shares with a fair market value of $25.2 million during the third quarter. Allied Nevada is the operator of the recently reopened Hycroft Mine near Winnemucca Nevada.

While Soros fund also favored gold ETFs during the third quarter including SPDR Gold Trust and Market Vectors ETF, the ETFs holdings paled in contrast to the amount of shares held and fair market value of equity holdings in gold mining companies.

The fund's holdings weren't confined to gold as Soros also reported it held 100,000 shares in South Africa's Platinum Group Metals Ltd with a fair market value of $126,000 during the third quarter