In my opinion, this is a much, much better risk than ANY small-mid cap pharma stock ... way too many ways for things to go south in that sector, not the least of which is an over hyped new therapereutic that can be a complete washout. Here you at least know you have gold in the ground (a lot of Au in the ground) and are just waiting for one knucklehead to give the go ahead. Also, while we lament on the drop in pps, look at what has gone on with the so called safe financials (not to mention a lot of biotechs, as well as others) ... absolutely hammered. It's always easy to look back on the winners and say "if only I had bought that". JMO