Precious metals analyst Don Durrett says the rally in gold mining equities is not over, contending the sector has at least two more significant upward moves ahead even after a strong run higher.
Gold mining stocks have delivered impressive gains in recent months as bullion prices climbed, but analyst Don Durrett believes investors who assume the sector has peaked may be leaving gains on the table. In his assessment, the mining equity complex still has two additional legs of upside before the current cycle exhausts itself.
The argument rests on a familiar dynamic in precious metals bull markets: mining stocks tend to lag the initial move in physical gold, then play catch-up — and often overshoot — as earnings leverage becomes apparent to a broader pool of investors. When gold prices rise, production costs for established miners remain relatively fixed in the short term, meaning profit margins can expand sharply. That leverage is what draws speculative and institutional capital into the sector later in a cycle.
Gold has traded near multi-year highs in 2025 and into 2026, driven by central bank buying, persistent inflation concerns, and a softer U.S. dollar environment. Mining equities have broadly rallied alongside bullion, but Durrett’s view suggests the equity move has not yet fully priced in where gold could go from here.
It is worth noting that mining stocks carry risks physical metal does not. Operational challenges, geopolitical exposure, hedging decisions, and management execution can all cause individual companies to diverge sharply from the underlying commodity. Investors in the sector typically need a higher risk tolerance and a longer time horizon than those holding bullion directly.
Still, the broader case for miners outperforming in the later stages of a gold bull market has historical precedent. Analysts who track the sector closely often point to prior cycles — the early 2000s run and the 2009-2011 period — when major gold producers posted equity gains that materially outpaced the spot price move.
Whether Durrett’s two-leg thesis plays out will depend heavily on where gold’s spot price goes from here and how well miners manage their cost structures.
