The last paragraph pretty much sums it up for me, been beating a dead horse for years with this question...
"Is it any wonder that generalist investors look at this space and steer clear, seeing these shenanigans against a background of stock prices lower today than at the beginning of the bull market, despite a quintupling in the gold price? Twenty years ago, hardly a generalist fund—small cap, large cap, value or growth—did not have exposure to gold mining shares. Today, hardly any does. Is it any wonder?"
The closest answer I ever got was "well all the easy gold has now been mined, now it's a less profitable sector with lower production and higher AISC" maybe, but my hardened cynicism towards the sector tells me otherwise.
