Top Gold Companies Burn Through $11 Billion In 10 Years

Despite rising gold prices and good market conditions, gold companies burned through $11 billion in cash over the last decade, leaving shareholders out in the cold. The failure to pay reasonable dividends has dented investor confidence in gold equities and could hurt their ability to recover even in the face of inflationary forces, according to a Citi Research report from Johann Steyn and Craig Irwin.

“The failure of most gold companies to pass on the benefits from the past four years has dented investor confidence,” write Steyn and Irwin. “Capital budgets soon followed to consume any surplus cash. Investors were kept engaged by the promise that higher capex would eventually lead to higher production and lower unit...