The price managers are there and they have done an outstanding dirty job. However, since gold has moved above $1000 (and oil stabilized around $70) the producing miners have seen their margins improve significantly and we are about to see much better net revenue figures in the quarterly reports. If on top of that we get an additional $100-600 price hike per ounce of gold during the remainder of 2010, the shares will start moving up and move up fast, no doubt about that. The price managers cannot get around profitability and dividends.

Once the sector gets hot, we will get a takeover spree of junior producers and exploration companies. The advantage of ECU is that they are profitably producing and can wait until the market reaches valuations in line with the real value of their resources. After 7 years of investment in the PM mining sector, I am hanging on a very thin string with a substantial erosion of my capital. However, I am aware that that can change any moment now and that companies like ECU have a lot of room to move up.

So investing in gold is the best way to insure your wealth, but the PM shares are the place to be to make a little fortune IMO. Since I don't have any wealth to insure, I opt for the latter investment class.