Using the Goldman Sachs Commodities Index as a proxy for the costs of mining (because it is heavily weighted towards industrial commodities), the real cost of mining gold jumped by nearly 50% during this period, explaining why gold stocks did not provide the leverage that gold investors expected.

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The stock market is dragging down gold stocks today, but not much.

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Gold mining stocks, with their ability to share profits by distributing dividends, not only preserve wealth, but also create wealth.

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Investors are dumping not only financial stocks but dollars, and they're plowing money into hard assets like gold instead.

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"Gold stocks, as represented by the AMEX Gold Bugs Index (HUI), an index of 15 large-cap, un-hedged, publicly held gold producers, have not kept up in percentage terms with the rise in the price of gold, and this is especially unusual because mining stocks are theoretically a leveraged play on the price of gold and should rise faster than gold in a rising price of gold environment, " says Nystrom.

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