john embry in latest investors digestmore for gold fans but i'm sure it applies to metals in general....here's his quote....."The fact that most minining costs (energy, explosives, steel) have sharply outrun the gold price has made the gold-mining industry no more economic toaday than when gold was half the current price, particularly in those geographical constituencies (canada) where the local currency has appreciated significantly against the U.S. dollar." It was quite the read and no I can't copy or paste it with the lousy computer I have. He's pretty pessimistic and states that gold has to go to $1000 for these co's to make money. Scary in light of tck and nova gold today.