Why can't just 1 CEO admit to manipulation? They have to know that a lot of juniors just cannot survive much longer: The mining firms themselves are in deep trouble, with rising costs, a shortage of engineers, hostile foreign governments, and difficult projects. The mining firms are printing new shares in heavy dilution (like the USGovt on USDollars), which is inflation. Under pressure, the mining firms will soon begin to renege on their covenants, as some will be forced to sell their properties to the banks. Eventually the USGovt and other Western governments might force sale of mining companies for pathetic low prices under law in order to replenish their Gold reserves in the central banks. The recent extreme challenges for the mining firms relates to hostile labor unions and resource nationalism that prompts confiscations. Distress for mining firms will result in continually lower metal output, resulting in supply shortages which favor owners of physical metal, not the mining stocks. The global assault on paper wealth includes mining stocks.