I have conducted a quantitative study of 203 gold and silver mining companies, analyzing their performance from February 29, 2024, which I consider the beginning of the current bull market, through October 23, 2026.
The objective was to answer a particularly important question following the violent declines we have witnessed:
To answer this question, I calculated three metrics for each company:
- Cumulative return: The percentage change in price since the beginning of the bull market.
- Maximum drawdown: The largest decline from a previous peak during the period analyzed.
- Current drawdown: The percentage decline from the highest price recorded during the period to the most recent closing price.
The results are extraordinarily revealing.
1. THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF MINERS ARE STILL SITTING ON SUBSTANTIAL GAINS
Of the 203 companies analyzed:
- 186 companies (91.6%) still show positive returns.
- Only 17 companies (8.4%) are trading below their starting levels.
- The median cumulative return stands at an impressive +209.67%.
Let's consider that last figure for a moment.
It means that the company at the midpoint of the distribution has seen its share price increase approximately 3.1-fold since February 2024, despite the magnitude of the subsequent correction.
2. THE CORRECTION HAS BEEN EXTRAORDINARILY VIOLENT
The drawdown figures reveal another equally important reality:
- Median maximum drawdown: −50.22%.
- Median current drawdown: −38.82%.
In other words, the typical company in the sample has experienced a decline of more than 50% from a previous peak at some point during the period and is currently trading almost 39% below its highest level over that period.
This helps explain why investor sentiment has become so negative.
However, there is a fundamental difference between losing 40% from the highs after a stock has multiplied several times in value and losing 40% relative to where it stood at the beginning of the bull market.
These are not equivalent situations.
A company can experience a devastating correction from its recent highs and still retain extraordinary cumulative gains.
3. THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL COMPANIES ARE ENORMOUS
Some miners have maintained spectacular returns since February 2024:
- Benz Mining: +2,774%
- Omai Gold Mines: +1,911%
- Montage Gold: +1,785%
At the opposite end of the spectrum, we find companies that have not only surrendered all their previous gains but are now trading substantially below their initial levels.
These 17 companies deserve individual analysis to determine whether their declines reflect company-specific problems, deteriorating fundamentals, financing requirements, shareholder dilution, or an excessive market reaction.
But we must avoid jumping to conclusions: a company that has fallen sharply is not necessarily an attractive investment opportunity.
Price action must be analyzed alongside fundamentals, technical structure, and relative strength.
4. WHAT DO THESE RESULTS TELL US ABOUT THE BULL MARKET?
This is, in my view, the most important conclusion.
If we were witnessing a widespread destruction of the gains accumulated during this cycle, we would expect to find a much larger proportion of companies trading below their February 2024 levels.
Yet we are seeing precisely the opposite.
More than 91% of the companies analyzed remain in positive territory since the beginning of the bull market.
The correction has been extremely deep, but it has not erased the enormous gains accumulated by most of the companies in the sample.
This is consistent with my technical interpretation: we are going through a very severe correction, but one of a lower degree than the major structural bear markets of the past.
Naturally, these figures do not guarantee that the lows are already in. Nor do they prove, on their own, that every company still has an intact individual uptrend.
But they certainly put the true magnitude of what has happened into perspective.
5. MY CONCLUSION
Long-term bull markets do not advance in a straight line.
They can experience extraordinarily violent corrections that damage sentiment, trigger substantial losses from peak valuations, and lead many investors to question whether the bull market even exists anymore.
And yet, when we broaden our perspective, we discover that a large portion of the gains accumulated throughout the cycle remains intact.
That is why I believe it is essential to distinguish between a severe correction and the end of a bull market.
They are two very different things.
Full ranking — all 203 securities
The complete table is sorted by return since the reference date (February 29, 2024). Click any column header to sort in either direction. The desktop and mobile searches filter by company or ticker. Percentages are signed; green denotes positive returns, red denotes negative returns.
Methodology and limitations
The workbook defines a nominal starting date of February 29, 2024. Certain securities have their earliest eligible close on March 1 or March 4, 2024. The latest available close is dated October 22 or 23, 2026, depending on the instrument. Company rows preserve the actual start/end dates, closing-price levels and percentage values supplied in the original spreadsheet.
Return is cumulative price change between those observations. Maximum drawdown is the worst observed peak-to-trough percentage decline during the interval. Current drawdown measures the latest close relative to the interval's highest close. These are price-based measures, not total returns adjusted for dividends.
The source workbook contains a selected group of 203 mining-linked securities, including some ETFs and instruments outside pure-play gold and silver miners. Results must not be extrapolated to every listed miner or treated as the return of a tradable index. The selected surviving universe may suffer selection, survivorship, corporate-action, adjusted-price and listing-history effects; local price currencies vary. No fundamental assessment of the 17 negative-return names has been performed.
This study is descriptive research, not a prediction, trading signal or personalized recommendation. See the public methodology guide.