Hello. Welcome to Company Focus. My name's Aamer Nawid, and this week, we're going to be taking a look at UK-listed gold miners. It's a good time to revisit the gold mining scene, given that a) last week we looked at the general miners, and b) it seems that gold is currently at a bit of a crossroads in terms of price, and seemingly deciding which way it's going to head.

If you look at what gold has done recently, since December it's pretty much led the gold mining shares on a bit of a merry dance. Since reaching $1,226 per ounce in December, the gold price has dropped back to towards the $1,050 level earlier this month, and subsequently has bounced up to around $1,100 - and settled at around about the $1,100 per ounce mark.

Regular viewers will be well aware that I'm a long-term gold bull, whether it's inflation fears, central bank purchases, and long-term fears over just general the value of paper currencies. Also, or the fact that the supply, mine production, has been in decline since the early 2000s. The case behind gold price, which is a lot higher than it is today, is fairly compelling. Equities provide good leverage to a rising gold price, but investors who are focused on the UK market don't seem to have that many options available to them.

Randgold Resources is the obvious one that stands out. It's the largest in terms of market capitalisation and it's listed on the FTSE 100. As you can see from the chart, Randgold had reached levels above GBP53, and due to the gold price weakness of late has obviously forced the share price right down earlier this month to towards the £42 mark.

This has all come despite the fact that the company has again continued to make some significant strides in terms of its operational progress. The company recently reported that in 2009, full-year profits were up by 79 per cent, and crucially, they've brought forward the date that the Kibali Project - which is one of the most underdeveloped gold deposits in Africa, which is located in the Democratic Republic of Congo - they brought the date of production for that particular project forward.

Randgold has continued to meet its production targets, and as if to underscore the confidence, they've also increased their dividend by around about 30 per cent. And that maybe explains why the share price has actually bounced a little bit back towards the £47 mark, settled around about where it is now, over recent days.

Another option for UK-focused investors is Petropavlovsk, the company formerly known as Peter Hambro Mining. As you can see from the chart, the company performed very, very well in late 2009. However, since then, obviously gold price weakness, but also a production slide as well as some directors' dealings which didn't look favourable have all impacted the share price negatively.

However, the company once again announced that production for 2009 was up by over 20 per cent, and management have also stated that for the year ahead they see production increasing by 56 per cent.

In addition to this the management have also stated that they're looking to reinstate dividends as well. So there's plenty of catalyst there for Petropavlovsk to continue the recovery that you've seen in recent days.

Elsewhere, I suppose at the smaller end of the spectrum you've got Centamin Egypt, which is another UK-listed company, which is also showing quite a lot of promise. Centamin recently shifted its primary listing from Australia to the UK. Management have stated that they're looking on track to reach their production target of around about 200,000 ounces for the year, which is a significant amount. The company, crucially, remains unhedged and is debt-free, so it can continue to explore and develop at quite an aggressive rate.

The key with Centamin is the Sukari gold project, which is actually one of the largest gold deposits that was actually brought into production outside the major companies in 2009. So that's going to be something to keep an eye on for the year ahead.

I think the key for all three of these companies that we've been talking about today is the fact that they've been able to ramp up production and keep a lid on costs whilst mine production globally for gold is on the way down. Separating between each of them, or choosing between them, is very difficult. Each of them have their relative pros and cons.

Randgold continues to excel. However, in terms of valuation, it looks a little bit expensive compared to, say, Petropavlovsk.

Petropavlovsk is also knocking on the door of the FTSE 100, and should it be promoted, the increase in profile will be very, very good for shares. However, its primary focus is Russia, and that's still a bit of a no-go zone for certain investors.

Although not as established as the others, Centamin Egypt, in terms of its market capitalisation per resource ounce, is below the industry average. So there's a case for Centamin also being cheap.

So really I think the key is that all three of them are going to benefit from gold price strength.

So where do we see gold price heading from now on in? I think in the short term, as market confidence returns, we could see gold price and the price of shares of the gold miners sort of recover, and significantly, based upon the fact that money which was previously left and gone into the US dollars and gone into cash is returning to equities and commodities.

In the long term, my view of gold is unchanged, and I'm very much still a gold bull for the reasons outlined earlier. Gold will continue to thrive, given that inflation will not go away. Central banks will continue to buy it, and mine production is on the decline.

The price of gold, I fully expect it to take out new highs this year, and if that is the case, I expect equities such as Peter Hambro, Randgold Resources and Centamin all to follow suit.

Thanks for watching. Make sure you tune in again next week.