The mining analysts at RBC Capital Markets have to be pleased with the performance of their global mining "best ideas" portfolio; in the third quarter of 2009, the 20-stock portfolio returned 20%. But with signs of a sustained global economic recovery emerging, they are changing no less than eight stocks in the portfolio for the fourth quarter.

A big difference now is that the analysts are bullish on the bulk commodities (coal and iron ore), which are very leveraged to an economic rebound. They were previously underweight the bulks.

On the other hand, they have now moved to underweight positions in uranium and fertilizer after being overweight on both in Q3. In the case of uranium, they pointed out that supplies have been "plentiful" and demand has been "discretionary" in the illiquid spot market. That is not expected to change in the short term. For fertilizer, they cited seasonality, the late North American harvest and uncertainty over prices as reasons to be underweight.

For base metals and precious metals, the analysts maintained their "market weight" position from Q3 over to Q4.

Here is their 20-stock portfolio for Q4:

BULK COMMODITIES
African Rainbow Minerals Ltd.
Aquila Resources Inc.
Centennial Coal Company Ltd.
Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Income Fund
Teck Resources Ltd.
Vale SA

BASE METALS
Antofagasta PLC
BHP Billiton Ltd.
Sherritt International Corp.
Xstrata PLC

PRECIOUS METALS
Centerra Gold Inc.
Goldcorp Inc.
Great Basin Gold Ltd.
Lonmin PLC
Newcrest Mining Ltd.
Pan American Silver Corp.

URANIUM
Cameco Corp.
Energy Resources of Australia Ltd.

FERTILIZERS
Agrium Inc.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc.

In Q4, the eight new additions are African Rainbow Minerals, Aquila Resources, Centerra Gold, Great Basin Gold, Labrador Iron Ore, Lonmin, Vale, and Xstrata.

The eight deleted companies that were in the Q3 portfolio are AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., First Uranium Corp., Intrepid Potash Inc., Kinross Gold Corp., Neo Materials Technologies Inc., Paladin Energy Ltd., Uranium Participation Corp., and Straits Resources Ltd.