Gold and silver mining stocks posted big gains Tuesday despite plunging share prices among broad market indexes on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

The FTSE 100, DAX and CAC 40 all closed lower on fears about the Eurozone's financial stability. Across the Atlantic, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 1.7 percent, the Nasdaq Composite ended off 2.3 percent and the S&P 500 gave up nearly 2 percent.

But shares of gold mining and silver mining companies soared, in many cases more than the day's price hike in the underlying metals, in the case of gold that was 2.8 percent and in the case of silver that was 4.5 percent.

Among gold miners, Yamana Gold Inc. climbed 3.1 percent while both Eldorado Gold Corp. and Randgold Resources Ltd. both jumped 5.1 percent.

Among silver miners there were even bigger gains: Endeavour Silver Corp. soared 6.1 percent; Tahoe Resources Inc. increased 4.2 percent and Great Panther Silver Ltd. shot up 7.4 percent.

Among major exchange-traded products, the top gainer was iShares Silver Trust, which was up 5.1 percent.

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