IMO the primary reason gold juniors have been doing so poorly is that they cannot get financing. If they don;t start using innovative financing methods like rights issues, as many as a quarter, maybe even a third, of them will be gone, whether through buyout, merger, or just plain bankruptcy. The cashed up companies will be able to pick up some good properties whose former holders can;t afford the filing fees and the like.
The #1 datum one should be checking for juniors right now is their cash balance, even more so than the quality of management (though of course the two are closely related.
BTW, I looked carefully at all the graphite juniors and my pick is Flinders -- FDR.V -- excellent management and a former producing high grade mine in Sweden that can be brought back into production quickly and cheaply, plus juicy exploration upside on their property. They do need to raise money, of course, but they will be the only graphite mine in the huge market of Europe, so they may even get most or all of it as debt, given they will be able to start production next year.
I was lucky enough to grab some shares on the recent pullback to $1.50, but even at current prices they look cheap to me.
LC