Shares of Newmont Mining Corp. fell Tuesday as an HSBC Global Research analyst cut his rating on the company, concerned about production declines ahead and few growth drivers on the horizon.

Newmont gave up $1.01, or 2.3 percent, to close at $42.72 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has traded between $39.84 and $59.70 in the past 52 weeks and is down about 13 percent in the same period.

Analyst Victor Flores in a client note changed Newmont to "Neutral" from "Overweight" and cut his target price to $47 from $62.

He said the company is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain production levels, while coping with a rising costs.

Flores said Newmont needs to build up development-stage projects and could boost growth through acquisitions.

"Even though the company possesses those attributes typically prized by investors – large capitalization, liquidity, and largely unhedged exposure to the gold price – Newmont Mining has consistently underperformed the HSBC Global Gold Index in three of the past five years," Flores observed.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for April delivery fell $1.40 to settle at $662.5 per ounce.