WPM - How to Invest in Gold Mining Stocks
Ever since the Stone Age came to a close, the search for metals has driven people to seek out natural resources. As soon as the most obvious sources of metals were depleted, people had to turn to mining. In particular, gold was a favorite among metal seekers, finding a variety of uses ranging from jewelry to a simple basis for currency. As time went by and gold became tougher to find, large gold mining companies gathered up enough capital to bring heavy equipment to bear on the problem of unearthing hard-to-reach gold deposits.
If you're looking to profit from gold mining, then there are a few different ways that you can get exposure to the sector in your investment portfolio. Buying individual stocks is always an option, but there are enough of them that it can be tricky trying to figure out which ones are best suited to your particular needs. Meanwhile, providers of exchange-traded funds have come out with several different choices tailored toward would-be investors in gold mining. Below, we'll take a closer look at these two main ways of investing in the sector, and then offer some thoughts on how to put together the gold mining portfolio that's best for you.
Image source: Barrick Gold.