I hope you were picking good miners-I've been reading textbooks from the industry (mining, mine engineering and refining).... and boy, this is a tough business to be in. The science is pretty damn hard, and I'm starting with an engineering degree and geology background. The more I learn about the mining business, the less confident I am that most precious metals stock touts really understand what's going on in these operations. It is giving me confidence in some of the miners that I have picked though, and confidence to junk other miners.
That being said, I hear you brother, I'm heavily invested in the mining space too, though I'm diversified into other resources beyond PM's. At least natural resources are something tangible that I can understand. So many companies out there are doing business in things with little to no intrinsic value.