Making an allocation While there are a myriad of strong opinions on which gold miner is the best choice for your portfolio, my definite preference is for Barrick. Aside from being the largest gold producer by volume, the company's fundamentals look solid relative to some of its closest peers. Where Barrick is trading at a P/E of 10, Newmont Mining trades at a P/E of 205, and Goldcorp trades at a P/E of 19.9. Goldcorp does have a slightly more attractive operating margin of 41% relative to Barrick's 35% (Newmont is at 29%), but the dividend yield advantage goes to Barrick over Goldcorp -- 2.4% relative to 1.5%.