Investors have become more risk averse in recent days as the war of words between the US and North Korea has ratcheted up.

This has driven investment into gold and gold-related assets which are a traditional safe haven. The UK’s largest gold exchange-traded product ETFS Physical Gold (PHGP), which has a total expense ratio of 0.39%, has seen inflows of more than £100m since the start of the week.

Gold mining stocks have also been in demand. As a reminder gold miners can perform better (and worse) than the precious metal itself based on their operational performance.

Below is a table showing the best performing gold mining stocks since the beginning of the week.

Company	EPIC	Performance week-to-date (%)
Ormonde Mining	ORM	40
ECR Minerals	ECR	9.52
Ariana Resources	AAU	7.84
Serabi Gold	SRB	5.71
Bezant Resources	BZT	5.66
Avocet Mining	AVM	5.34
Randgold Resources	RRS	5.07
Polymetal International	POLY	4.73
Fresnillo	FRES	4.6
Acacia Mining	ACA	4.32
Source: SharePad, 11 August

And the best performers over the last three years.

Company	EPIC	3-yr performance (%)
SolGold	SOLG	500
Trans-Siberian Gold	TSG	190
Centamin	CEY	108
Highland Gold Mining	HGM	105
Polymetal International	POLY	76
Galantas Gold Corporation	GAL	73.1
Goldplat	GDP	50
Tethyan Resources	TETH	50
Greatland Gold	GGP	50
Fresnillo	FRES	49.1
Source: SharePad, 11 August

And here you can find an article from Shares resident mining expert and editor Daniel Coatsworth on investing in small cap gold miners.

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