There are a number GATA highly respected folks, like my friend "Trader" Dan Norcini, that believe the gold/silver shares have put in a bottom … and I am one of them. The HUI roared back just where it needed to on a weekly basis by bouncing of its January 2010 bottom and has just broken through a pronounced downtrend, even if barely so.

There are others who see the same when it comes to believing a major bottom has finally been put in on the shares. From Café member Ric…

We may be at the forefront of this; watch next week! Robert McHugh, one of my favorite technical analysts, had been waiting and waiting and waiting for a buy signal in gold and the mining shares, and he pulled the trigger a few days ago! He recommended NUGT for his viewers, the 3x shares ETF. I’ve made 15% in it already. Maybe this is the bottom!
Cheers

GATA has been fortunate to have numerous supporters over the years. Many of their share prices, as in so many other precious metals companies, have been decimated. They represent the spectrum of the precious metals industry … major producer, junior producers, and exploration companies. For the most part, they rebounded sharply this week to the upside.

I have put up a sample of the fine companies who have supported GATA over the years for your perusal. What a superb time to at look them, and other fine gold/silver companies, very carefully.

Kirkland Lake Gold Inc. is an operating and exploration gold company located in Kirkland Lake, ON in the Southern Abitibi gold belt. In 2001, the Company acquired 13,000 acres of five contiguous formerly producing gold mines, which had historically produced 21 million ounces of gold grading 15.1 grams per ton (0.44 ounces per ton) primarily from the Main/’04 Break system. The current focus is on expanding gold production from the Main/'04 Break, and a new discovery area, the South Mine Complex (SMC).

Tinka Resources Ltd. is an exploration company focused on enhancing shareholder value by expanding its assets. Tinka has two main projects in Peru, the Colquipucro silver-lead-zinc project … read morelocated in Cerro de Pasco, and the Tibillos copper-porphyry project located east of Ica.

Tan Range Exploration is a publicly-traded financial gold company whose business strategy is to acquire royalty interests in gold production from its core assets in the Lake Victoria greenstone belt (LVGB) of Tanzania where a reported 40 million ounces of gold have been discovered since the mid-1990's.

Lion One Metals Limited is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company currently focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral resource properties in Fiji, with the vision of becoming a low-cost gold producer with a portfolio of quality projects in Fiji and abroad.

SAMEX Mining Corp. is a junior resource company engaged in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties in South America, particularly in the countries of Chile and Bolivia. The Company focuses its exploration activities on the search for deposits of precious and base metals. In Chile, the Company holds an interest in the Los Zorros district gold-copper-silver prospects; the Inca copper, gold, silver, and molybdenum prospects.

Agnico-Eagle Mines Limited is a Canadian-based gold producer with operations in Canada, Finland and Mexico and exploration and development activities extending to the United States. Agnico-Eagle has full exposure to higher gold prices consistent with its policy of no-forward gold sales.

First Majestic Silver Corp. is committed to building a senior Silver producing mining company based on an aggressive development and acquisition plan with a focus on Mexico. The Company presently owns and operates three producing silver mines in Mexico; the La Parrilla Silver Mine, the San Martin Silver Mine and the La Encantada Silver Mine. Production from these three mines is anticipated to be between 8.8 to 9.3 million ounces of silver equivalents or 8.2 to 8.7 million ounces of pure silver in 2012.

Golden Minerals is an emerging junior silver producer with a producing mine in Durango State, Mexico and an evaluation stage project in northwestern Argentina. The total company resources are estimated at approximately 72 million silver equivalent ounces in the Measured and Indicated category, plus an additional 421 million silver equivalent ounces in the Inferred category.

Sona Resources Corp., a natural resource company, engages in the acquisition and exploration of mineral properties, primarily gold in Canada. It holds interests in the Blackdome Gold Mine, which consists of 34,794 hectares located north of Vancouver, British Columbia; the Elizabeth gold property comprising 34,794 hectares located in southwestern British Columbia; and the Montgolfier project covering 6,887 hectares located in northwestern Quebec.

Seabridge Gold is a Toronto-based North American resource exploration company. It owns Kerr-Sulphurates-Mitchell, a copper-gold-silver-molybdenum porphyry project in northern British Columbia. The deposit's proven-probable reserves includes 38.5 million ounces of gold, 214 million ounces of silver, 9.985 billion pounds of copper and 257 million pounds of molybdenum. The property is part of a bigger deposit containing another gold project known as Snowfield (Pretium Resources), the entire deposit is the largest undeveloped gold deposit in North America.

It seems to me we have seen the worst of the downside, the why of which has been presented of late ... and that we are at the earliest of early stages of a historic move to the upside of the precious metals shares in the years ahead.