by John Rubino
Dollar Collapse
No one interested in current income buys gold mining stocks because those stocks are traditionally all about capital gains. As ‘leveraged plays on the price of gold,’ the miners work this way:
Let’s say gold is $1,000 per ounce and a hypothetical miner produces a million ounces annually, eking out a net profit of $10 million, or $10 per ounce produced. There’s no money here for dividends, obviously, and virtually nothing for capex. Someone hoping for current income would have zero interest in such a stock.
But let the gold price rise by $100 per ounce, or 10%, and the miner’s profit jumps by 900%, to $110 per ounce. In most market environments the stock of such a company will rise, which is the outcome most capital gains-oriented investors want.