Look across the universe of equities these days and it's hard to find a stock sector more thoroughly hated by investors than precious metals mining companies.
They are supposed to act as leveraged investments on the price of the precious metals. However, on average, the sector has underperformed the price action in gold in silver over the past several years. In fact, many miners have been absolute widowmakers.
On top of that, as the stock market has powered to new highs over recent months, many miners and mining indexes have sunk to multi-year lows.
What gives?