Podcast: Even at $4,000 Gold the Miners Are Ridiculously Cheap

Yesterday we wrote that with gold topping $4,000, it’s time to step back and look at the big picture—and the fundamentals haven’t changed. Foreign governments and central banks hold about $10 trillion in US denominated reserves. But for years they’ve been trading this paper for gold— because it is their only realistic alternative. Why are they searching for an alternative? Because they are losing confidence in the US government. The debt, the political dysfunction, the weaponization of the dollar— these all make them less excited about loaning money to the US government. And their steady buying of gold is what pushed it to these levels. Those catalysts have not gone away, and if anything, are stronger than ever. When a few hundred billion in demand can double the price of gold, imagine what happens if even a small portion of the remaining trillions rotate into gold. Does 5% of dollar reserves shifting into gold translate to $10,000 gold? 20% re-allocation to $20,000 per ounce? We don’t know exactly, but these numbers are not fantastical. There’s still enormous room for upside. In the short term, of course, we can see plenty of noise. Markets respond to headlines—like the new prime minister of Japan openly calling for more money-printing. Any environment like that naturally drives gold higher. But at the same time, we’re seeing signals that a correction could be near—a stampede of new individual investors, record inflows into large gold ETFs, and a drop off in jewelry sales. There are some classic signs of a short-term top. But we don’t focus on short term trading. We always look at the long term big picture. And the long-term trend remains solidly intact. So does the most important story of all right now: the much ignored mining sector. Even after a massive run, many gold miners are still deeply undervalued relative to the long-term intrinsic value of their businesses. One company featured in our premium investment research is up 5x in the past year. Yet even if gold fell back to $3,000, it would still be turning enough profit to trade at just four times earnings. It’s debt-free. It pays a dividend. And it offers massive downside protection. So while no one has a crystal ball—and we can’t tell you what happens tomorrow—the reality is that the mining, drilling, and service companies behind this bull market remain absurdly cheap. That’s an opportunity to take seriously. We dug into all of this in our latest podcast which you can listen to here. https://youtu.be/96mB4tbh9Ao And if you want to learn more about our investment research— currently available for a limited time discount— click here. (You can find the podcast transcript here.)