Precious Metals shares slid on Wednesday. Endeavour Silver down 11%; Hecla Mining down 10%; AG down 9%; Platinum Group down 8%; Coeur Mining, Silvercorp down over 7%.
Gold prices fell on Wednesday as investors booked profit following a months-long rally that saw the yellow metal smash records, while a slightly stronger dollar added to the pressure.
Spot gold dropped 1.2% to $4,440.64 per ounce, after briefly touching a more than one-week high earlier in the session. Bullion had hit a record high of $4,549.71 on December 26.
Among other precious metals, spot silver lost 5% to $77.21 per ounce, down from an all-time high of $83.62 hit on December 29.
Spot platinum dropped 4.8% to $2,327.62 per ounce, receding from a record high of $2,478.50 touched last Monday.
"The main trend remains supportive, but in the short term, some investors are taking profit after the significant rally of the last few months. Moreover, the USD slightly recovered, and this is slightly curbing gold appetite," said Carlo Alberto De Casa, external analyst at banking group Swissquote.
Elsewhere, Washington seems to be coordinating with Venezuela since capturing President Nicolas Maduro. U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday unveiled a plan to refine and sell up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil that had been stuck under U.S. blockade.
The U.S. dollar hovered near a more than two-week high, making greenback-priced metals more expensive for other currency holders.
Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Governor Stephen Miran said on Tuesday that aggressive U.S. interest rate cuts are needed to keep the economy moving forward, while Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin said rate changes will need to be "finely tuned" to incoming data.
Markets are pricing in two rate cuts this year, as investors watch out for ADP employment data due later in the day, and U.S. non-farm payroll data on Friday for further clues on monetary policy.
Non-yielding assets such as gold tend to perform well in low-interest-rate environments and during periods of geopolitical or economic uncertainty.