Here’s a chart of the popular mining ETF, GDX, relative to the spot gold price:

Source: stockcharts.com

A long-term chart of XAU index to gold shows the lowest value in 20 years except for the panic low in 2008:

Source: stockcharts.com via http://oilandgas-investments.com

Since last summer, this ratio has been bouncing around in a range not seen since the depths of the last bear market in late 2008 to early 2009.

Our own gold producer index is still slightly lower than before that crash, when gold topped out at $1000.

As a result of high metal prices and strong cash flows, we are now showing 66 miners that are actually paying dividends, a rarity in this industry:

http://miningalmanac.com/stock-lists/dividend-mining-companies

Just a quick post on this sunny Friday afternoon in August…

Check out this divergence over the last three months between our gold producers index and platinum group index, as the gold price has risen to meet platinum. If this spread returns to more normal levels through a rise in platinum, we could see that index catch up.

Tip: compare any group of our mining stock indices here.

The increasing tendency for gold and silver to behave like safe-haven currencies instead of cyclical commodities has been a godsend for miners lately. On average, mining stocks have a higher correlation with broad stock indices like the S&P500 and FTSE than with metals prices, but when enthusiasm and demand for precious metals is at a fever pitch, as in the late 1970s to 1980, it seems that miners begin to distinguish themselves. I should note that the opposite is seems to be true at the other extreme – witness the 60% decline of the XAU Gold & Silver index from 1995-2000, while the S&P500 tripled.

Here’s a three-month view of our Base Metal Producer index vs. our Gold Producer index (you can play with more index comparisons here):

This month has not been kind to industrial resource stocks, since the broader commodity complex has been hit hard by traders anxious to unwind risk. For some perspective on how much unwinding has taken place, West Texas oil briefly traded under $80 this week, down from $114 this spring and $100 just three weeks ago:

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Dr. Copper is holding up a bit better, but is still down 14%:

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Not surprisingly, our Movers lists of best performing stocks over the past month are now dominated by precious metals companies. Here’s a snapshot, but you can see the whole list here and filter it by country or time frame:

In what has been a sideways market for most commodities, prices of titanium dioxide (TiO2 aka rutile) have doubled in private trading this year. Contracts are being settled in excess of $2500 per metric ton, up from $700 last year and $400 a few years ago. This pure white powder is favored as a color base for paints, pigments, plastics and high-quality paper, and supplies are very tight.

There are very few primary titanium producers or explorers, but two small-caps stand out in our database: White Mountain Titanium (WMTM on the OTCBB), with an advanced-stage exploration project in Chile, and Sierra Rutile (SRX on AIM), with a producing mine in Sierra Leone.

Their stock prices have reflected the situation in the rutile market, as they have defied the malaise that has effected many resource stocks lately:

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Site Tip:  To search for just companies that focus on a particular mineral, or for which a single mineral accounts for the majority of their resource value, simply select “main mineral” in the drop-down filter on the filters page:

It’s odd: despite gold’s steady rise from 1100 to 1500+ over the last 12 months, many gold producers are actually lower than in Spring 2010, as evidenced in our Gold Producers Index (5-year view here):

Profits are up very nicely in recent years due to leverage on the gold price, but the shares have been a big disappointment, as investors seem to be directing their enthusiasm into the metals themselves. This means that even at historically high stock prices, precious metal miners are trading at normal multiples to assets and earnings.

This makes sense if you believe that we have reached the top of this commodity cycle, because value investors know that you don’t pay premium multiples near the top (though you do near the bottom, when earnings are likely to grow). On the other hand, if you believe this bull still has legs, now is probably not a bad time to add to positions, as there seems to be a fair amount of apathy towards PM producers at the moment, so an uptick in sentiment could bring nice results.

Note that the above does not apply to gold explorers, which have done quite nicely since early 2010, though they only have been digesting that move so far in 2011.

We’ve made 15 new mining indices showing the 5-year performance of stocks in various mineral groups and industry sub-sectors. Take a look and see what patterns you can discover: http://miningalmanac.com/indexes

It’s very easy to us to create new indices based on almost any criteria (market cap range, mineral, country, exchange, etc), so let us know if you have any special requests. Index component companies are listed below each chart, and you can click through to compare them all in the datagrid.

BTW, did you know that iron ore explorers and rare earth stocks have been the hottest sectors over the last 12 months, or that the diamond and uranium sectors remain closer to their 2008/2009 lows than their 2006 highs? Neither did we until we graphed them.

Indices update every night from 23:00-24:00 UTC using daily closing prices.