Many of our miners hedge.
For example, Nxxx company will lock in a sale price for a couple of months at say $1500AUD; the spot gold price might be at $1400AUD and may rise to $2000AUD or drop to $800AUD but the mine knows they can make a profit because they have done their sums for "their" business model. This type of strategy is one of many ways to hedge; obviously if the price rises, the business and shareholders miss out on the extra profit, but if the metal price drops, they are safe.
Sometimes, when a currency is all over the place, (volatile) and the metal price is volatile, it might be a good idea to hedge.
Also, sometimes, miners will stockpile their best ore for when times are tough; they'll process low grade ore when the price is high, this is another sort of way of softening market highs and lows.
You too could hedge, if you could find a reliable and trustworthy person.
Say I said to you, that over the next 3 months I'll buy 2 x 1 kilogram 99.9 silver bars from you, every Monday for $900 AUD, you agree, (Gentleman's agreement), if the price goes up, you are happy, if the price goes down, that's the chance you take. Some folk do exactly that but they buy from a dealer.
Obviously, there are complications! Obviously trust is a huge issue because you don't want to attract black patent leather pointy shoes. Supply needs to be assured, that reliability is what's important, if the supply breaches the contract, you'll have to do some very sweet ass-kissing.
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