Thanks for the breakdown rowingboat. I just got the general drift when browsing it. Bit depressing, and still a a bit mystifying to me that just a few companies could do well, and Homestake exceptionally so, while most wallowed. As the writer implied, individual exceptions can be found in most sectors of that time - i.e, rare successes not to do with gold. But why wouldn't mining gold be a good business under those conditions?
It does make sense that dual gold miners with silver or copper would be dragged down in an industrial depression. I guess too, that any companies with debt or needing to raise capital, including those not producing yet, would get into trouble. Credit would have been impossible, and no-one had money to subscribe to equity raisings.
