Gold companies try to restore their sparkle

FOR MUCH of the 2010s gold companies looked rather leaden. At roughly $300bn the world’s dozens of listed gold firms have a combined market value that is less than that of the maker of Nescafé Gold coffee. Yet when miners of all the Earth’s riches gathered in Cape Town on February 3rd-6th for their biggest investment jamboree of the year, those digging for the shiny stuff were aglitter. As economic uncertainty and low interest rates pushed gold prices up by 19% last year, the quickest rate since 2010, goldminers’ share prices surged, too—and twice as fast.