The entire minerals sector has performed very well in July, with precious metals stocks finally catching a bid, but industrial materials stocks have been the best performers of the year.

Here’s a chart of some of the strongest indices since the 2008 crash (pink: rare earths; purple: heavy minerals; blue: base metal producers; green: coal):

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Site tip: To compare indices in a single chart like this, go to http://miningalmanac.com/indices and select “compare” or just go to http://miningalmanac.com/indices/compare.

You can also compare any individual stock to the indices (or the gold price) by going to its pages and clicking on the “charts” tab:

Sure, gold stocks have done great lately, but these are sub-sectors with even better performance over the last 12 months:

Zinc

Silver Explorers

Heavy Minerals

Rare Earth Minerals

Iron Explorers

Gold producers actually have been laggards, despite what is setting up to be an awesome year for cash flows and profits.

See all the sub-sector indices here: http://miningalmanac.com/indices

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