SalvorHardin wrote:My big winner was Integra Gold, a Quebec-based soon-to-be producer which was taken over in 2017. That more than made up for the rest, which were mostly losers. That comes with the territory.
The one that I keep thinking of going back into is Victoria Gold Corporation, which now produces gold in the Yukon.
Physical gold. I own one sovereign. I'd rather take a chance with explorers and producers than physical gold.
That is one sovereign more than me. Like you I prefer the miners. Partly because you do get some kind of dividend whereas physical gold pays you nothing, and you may even have to pay to store it somewhere. Whereas a miner is effectively storing its gold for free by leaving it in the ground.
Also miners tend to go up and down more than gold itself, so you can have more fun with that.
I hold the two big names. I have a 40 grand position in Barrick and a smaller amount in Newmont.
Other than that the US-listed GDXJ is an ETF of the junior miners. As with biotech I don't know enough to know which junior miners will go to the moon, and so buy them all
Another interesting play is Franco-Nevada (FNV) and Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM). These have a different model as they are not miners but they buy and sell the future production of gold (and silver). They have very low costs, few employees but seem to be very savvy. I have owned both in the past and may again. Both have doubled in the last few months.
Because all of these are very volatile it can be a fertile area to use options to define your risk and leverage your bets.