It is certainly an understatement to say that gold miners have been underperforming the precious metal itself, with gold miners ETF (GDX) trading below its inception price in 2006 despite gold (GLD) prices more than doubling since then.
Although the peaking and subsequent collapse of gold prices in 2011 was the major catalyst behind investors shunning the sector, low return on equity and mismanagement have been fundamental concerns which further depressed the appeal for gold miners. In particular, as Financial Post pointed out, “cost control” is the number one problem that