I'm not all that thrilled to be owning Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX) right now. While the company's stock has tended to be highly correlated to the price of copper, that correlation has slipped a bit. I'm guessing this has a lot to do with the violence and labor disputes at the company's Grasberg mine in Indonesia.

You may look to out-of-favor producers like Newmont that have been in the doldrums. The gap between the metal and the miners is at an all-time high, but producers are focused on bringing down costs.

Many of us in the gold bug community who have been holding on to our bullion and select stocks for at least several years now have been doing so in anticipation of a mania.

Barrick Gold (ABX) and Newmont Mining (NEM) have suffered due to the recent downtrend in mining companies. If we take into consideration that gold prices are 11% above their 52-week lows, while the stock prices of Barrick Gold and Newmont Mining are at...

Over the last several years, the large gold mining companies have produced revenue gains on the back of higher gold prices and not much in the way of mining more ounces of gold.

The headline "Gold and Silver Wait Patiently for More Easing" from this story at Commodity Online last week about sums up the current situation for precious metals investors and, whether it's good or bad, some news should come on that front in the days ahead as the Federal Reserve's policy committee again gathers to deliberate over whether another round of money printing might be necessary amid growing signs of a weakening U.S. economy.

There are three mentalities for those with an interest in gold: Traders see gold (and all precious metals) as vehicles to go long or short depending on the opportunity set, nothing more.

Much like Caterpillar's (CAT) management, who reinvest capital and concentrate on performing during bear markets, BHP's reinvestment of capital and restructuring of operations places it firmly in a position to outperform competitors as market pressures ease.

After surging in January, prices for gold and silver have been remarkably steady through the first three weeks of February, setting the stage for a possible big move sometime in the period ahead - direction unknown - as bearish technical factors contrast with bullish reports of increased demand by China, India, and central banks around the world.

Teck Resources ( TCK ) is a diversified miner with a heavy emphasis on coal, copper and zinc. It will need strong metallurgical coal prices to repeat its results.

After marching steadily higher early in the week, gold and silver saw their biggest one-day losses in more than a month on Friday as hopes for more Fed money printing were dashed after the better-than-expected labor report.

A precious metal which receives much less attention than gold or silver is platinum.