Via Energy and Gold.com:

The gold miners as represented by the GDX have been pushed  to the breaking point with yet another 'bear flag' forming just a few percent above crucial long-term support:

 

GDX_Daily_3.15.2015

To put the situation into perspective, GDX is barely more than 10% above the 2008 panic lows despite the fact that gold is more than $400/oz higher than where it was in late-2008. A breach of the above area of support (highlighted in green) would essentially mean that investors are pricing in zero profitability for the gold mining sector for some time to come.

 

;GDX_Monthly

Such a decline would be quite ominous given that most of the senior gold producers which constitute the GDX have an all-in sustaining cost per ounce of gold of ~$1,000.

The gold miners have been pushed to the brink, another bear flag breakdown would send share prices to depths that were once thought of as unfathomable. However, such a washout could be just the right medicine needed to finally put a bottom in place for this much maligned sector.