If like me, you have been... wondering what is going on, this is what I have found from other commentators. Many investors have been shifting from gold mining funds to bullion funds (i.e., mutual funds that buy into ETFs such as GLD and SLV). Some have been leaving mining equities due to the volatility of prices, others have been leaving because the sector is grossly underperforming. These are all poor reasons to leave as future events will confirm. But this is what it is. Buying into an ETF like GLD is a huge mistake. All the "gold" "owned" by GLD is supposed to be held somewhere by HSBC, who continually shorts the market. GLD never audits this gold, so they buy purely on trust. And HSBC never has to prove what it has. For that matter, the whole LBMA operates this way. No one knows how much gold the LBMA has or how much they have sold through paper instruments. All the experts are in agreement that the mining sector is way undervalued and due for a rebound.
That said, if you look at the one year chart for gold, there appears to be a huge inverted head and shoulders pattern that seems to be nearing completion. The left shoulder started in September 2011. The neckline is at about $1800. Once the gold price returns to $1800, the pattern will be complete. From the neckline, the advance in price typically equals the greatest deapth of the head, which in this case suggests a move up of about $250. This would push gold over $2000 per ounce. Time will tell if this comes to pass...