Meltdown for mining stocks

Summary: When gold took a steep dive last month, losing $145 in just 2 days, stocks for some the world’s miners dropped with it.  Shares for the 3 largest miners – BHP Billiton, Vale and Rio Tinto – slid an astounding 6% on Monday, April 15. The biggest loser though was XStrata, which slid over 10.6% in just one day! The decline wasn’t exclusive to gold miners though. Shares for copper miner Freeport-McMoRan slid by an eye-popping 8.6% in one day. Gold and precious metal miners continue to see weakness, even though they recovered somewhat from the beating. Read more…