I love my manipulation theories, but they apply more to gold than to the miners.
And you are right about the cost of production — in particular the cost of the diesel input is dropping hard, KEEPING THE COSTS LOW.
My theory is that the Fund Managers ( hedge funds and mutual funds ) are a lot of lemmings . . . . . they read some conventional wisdoms ( e.g., "Goldman Sachs says POG is going to 1050" or whatever ) AND THE LEMMING FUND MANAGERS DON'T DARE TAKE THE RIGHT POSITION ON THE MINERS for fear of not being part of the fund manager crowd.
So my theory is that mines will stay out of favor, until what is driving the [fund manager] crowd behavior changes.
Part of my theory is that the retail investors ( you, me ) have a smaller effect, as compared to institutional money. I think that is true .
What is driving the institutional crowd behavior ? I am not completely sure at this time. I am more sure that they are behaving as all crowds do.
Until