Why buy gold and/or silver mining/royalty stocks instead of physical gold or silver?
If gold, for example, were to escalate considerably in price (i.e. to $2,000, $3,000, or even more) in the next few years it would have a significantly positive impact on the profitability of the companies who mine it and the royalty companies that buy it from marginal producers. For example, with gold priced at $1,000/oz., and the cost of production at perhaps $600/oz. the gross profit margin of gold mining companies would be 40.0%. If 2 years from now, however, gold were to increase to $2,000 and the cost of production were to increase by only 20% to $720/oz. then the mining companies’ gross profit margins would have gone up from $400/oz. to $1280/oz. or 220%! That’s called leverage and historically, in a rising market, the ratio for gold and silver mining/royalty shares vs. physical gold ranges from about 2.5:1 for large-cap companies (currently 2.6:1 YTD for HUI companies according to the table above) on average to as much as 6:1 for gold and silver mining/royalty companies (curren
