"This begs the question, when general equities crash again, what will our PM stocks do since they're already at the lows again? Go even lower before rising?"

My gut feeling says they continuously go (naked) short the PM Mining sector to go long the S&P. In other words, free money to support the S&P.

Somewhere that game should reverse. But whether they have fixed that moment somewhere in the future or whether they can survive that moment remains a big questionmark for me.

Any audit or opening of books may reveal these kind of games, so it is obvious they cannot accept an audit.