Thanks for your thoughts on gold yongqianyino322. You may well...

Thanks for your thoughts on gold yongqianyino322. You may well be right regarding further bottoming out.
I believe that sector performance greatly affects the stocks in that sector. Just look at some of the share price rises for explorers in lithium and cobalt. Investors have speculated in these micro sectors and a lot of money has moved in very quickly simply for the fact that an explorer owns a tenement containing lithium or cobalt. Check out some of the share prices of these stocks just 12 months ago when there was no real interest.
If the gold price does eventually rise as we both think, then I believe that will bring more interest into the entire sector as investors and market funds will also seek above average returns and carefully look at sectors where that is occurring. My main point was that if this interest does occur, then investors often will look for stocks within these sectors that haven't run as hard as others but are still quality stocks. Like you said, drilling results determine an explorers fate. However, drilling results will affect the share price much differently if a sector is 'hot' than when a sector is out of favour with investors in my opinion.