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# VanEck: Focus on Gold Miners’ Cash Flow – Not Earnings
- URL: https://www.smartinvestingsociety.com/vaneck-focus-on-gold-miners-cash-flow-not-earnings/
- Published: 2023-08-18T12:15:16.000Z
- Updated: 2023-08-18T12:15:16.000Z
- Author: Smart Investing
- Tags: Commodities, Stock Picks, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-09-30 15:32

Investors typically use earnings to gauge a company’s performance across industries. But some earnings are better than others. For a tech company, earnings may not be strong as the company is focusing on developing a new product or service. They may not have earnings at all, but can still grow.

For other companies, cash flow may be a better measure. That can indicate how well a company is performing, without getting into the accounting changes that lead to earnings.

That’s particularly true when looking at commodity-producing companies such as gold miners. For a mining company, their forecasts are based on properties that are being mined.

But those earnings can be heavily adjusted by a number of accounting factors. That includes non-cash items and mine depletion allowances. And earnings can be impacted by non-performing mines that need to be started up first.

Plus, with the variable costs of gold prices, predicting earnings can be tough. That’s why a focus on cash flow may prove superior for determining long-term value.

Looking at the free cash flow per ounce of gold, for instance, investors can get a better gauge as to the value of a mining company. And that makes it easier to take an apples-to-apples comparison across the space.

This kind of cash-flow analysis could also work with any other commodity-driven business.

[To read the full report, click here.](https://www.vaneck.com/us/en/blogs/gold-investing/ima-casanova-focus-on-gold-miners-cash-flow-not-earnings/?ref=smartinvestingsociety.com)