March 23, 2026 | Mining is Hard: Rising Oil Squeezes Margins

These are turbulent times, especially for the gold miners whose profit margins are bouncing all over the place. Here’s a brief X exchange that puts the last few weeks in context:

The Lesson

Two things can be true at the same time: Gold miners have indeed been squeezed by recent price action in oil and gold. But their current profit margin of $2,600 per ounce remains wide enough to produce massive free cash flow.

One more true thing: The current war will eventually end, with both combatants and spectators in even worse financial shape. Central banks will have no choice but to ease aggressively, thus hastening the end of the fiat currency experiment.

No one knows what the next few months will bring. But the next few years are pretty clear.

John Rubino March 23rd, 2026

Posted In: John Rubino Substack

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