Despite its well-received half-year results, Barrick Gold - the world's second-largest producer of yellow metal behind Newmont - is no exception. In our previous commentary on the company's results - see Barrick Gold Corporation: Decades Lost - we pointed out that investing in the sector remains a supremely perilous exercise.

In addition to the impossibility of predicting the price of the raw material concerned, whose fluctuations often defy logic, shareholders have to contend with returns that are generally very mediocre, even when they are smoothed over a full cycle.

Barrick is a case in point: the price of gold has risen from $1,500 to $2,400 an ounce over the past five years, supported in particular by a powerful rally since last year. This is despite rising interest rates, a scenario that once again defies logic.

The company's share price, meanwhile, has not moved one iota since the summer of 2019. Worse: halved, annual profit generation - free cash flow - has collapsed, despite production investments doubling. The same is true of operating margins, which have plummeted by a third.

Barrick, however, is producing 25% less gold in 2023 than it did in 2019: 4 million ounces in the last fiscal year, compared with 5.4 million ounces then. While the revenues of the world's second-largest gold producer hardly benefited from inflation over the period, its production and operating costs did.

This is an intriguing finding, which shatters the myth that the yellow metal is the ideal hedge against irresponsible monetary policies.