Stay away from them all until the bombs shells fly. You can buy now, but boy will you miss a better Op. IMO, don't fall for false green, dead cat bounce, check the Forex and Shanghai Composet to Frankfurt Exchange ALL GREEN=bad for gold day....too much uncertainty and MM's trickster you into green morning and redrum rest of day... IMO
Long term PM? Investing on your own? Large cap companies. The best group of guys I've ever seen run a gold mine was the Newmont Mining Corp. Those guys were balls to the walls workers and knew exactly what they were doing. I'm not surprised to see them become as successful as they have.
You have to do your own due diligence and be responsible for your own choices, Ironman. ABX was an easy choice at $15.00 because of how under-valued they were/are. All the 'down-grade' bull crap was due to the price of gold. They're pretty much neutral right now.
If this market begins to tank, miners will go with it because investors will run to liquidity like they always do. It's a risk so don't take my advise here. Do your homework. Get in touch with a professional broker and seek advise. I walked into a wells fargo bank and found me a good honest broker who made me a lot of money. Stay away from OTC penny stocks.
But long term? I don't think we have that long. Just my opinion.