Quarterly commentary - Mackenzie Resource Team

Global Resource Fund - Portfolio Insights

• Resource markets were volatile in the second quarter. Energy exposure was supported at points by geopolitical risk and tight refined-product markets, while several metals-related and materials industries weakened as investor sentiment shifted and selected commodity prices pulled back. The Global Resource Fund outperformed its global resources benchmark, helped mainly by an underweight allocation to integrated oil & gas, as well as an overweight allocation to copper and stock selection in the sector.
• First Quantum Minerals (+16% during the quarter), Gladiator Metals (+202%), Interfor (+29%), and Axalta Coating Systems (+26%), were among the top contributors to performance.
• Aluminum, commodity chemicals and selected oil & gas exploration and production holdings detracted from performance. TotalEnergies (-12%) and Shell (-14%) declined as the oil price rally lost momentum later in the quarter. Alcoa (-20%), Prio (-20%), Parex Resources (-21%), and Methanex (-21%), also weighed on performance.
• During the quarter, we continued to reposition within energy, materials and natural resource infrastructure. New positions included Compass Gás e Energia, Kinder Morgan, Rumo, and Venture Global. We added to First Quantum Minerals, Phillips 66, Permian Resources and HF Sinclair, while reducing selected energy and materials holdings, including Shell, Tourmaline Oil, SM Energy and Saturn Oil & Gas.

Precious Metals Fund - Portfolio Insights

• Precious metals equities corrected sharply during the quarter after strong prior performance. Higher interest-rate expectations, U.S. dollar strength and profit taking weighed on gold and gold equities, although geopolitical risk, fiscal concerns and central-bank demand continued to provide longer-term support. The Precious Metals Fund outperformed its benchmark despite the negative absolute return environment.
• The portfolio managers continue to find good opportunities in exploration and development companies. Gladiator Metals (+202% during the quarter) was a strong contributor as copper, gold and silver exploration exposure continued to be rewarded. Omai Gold Mines (+30%) and Legacy Gold Mines (+205%) also contributed, while smaller development-stage holdings such as Panoro Minerals (+120%) and G2 Goldfields (+75%) added to performance.
• Large and mid-cap precious metals equities generally retraced after a strong run. Agnico Eagle Mines (-22%), Gold Fields (-25%), Alamos Gold (-30%), Equinox Gold (-22%) and selected gold and silver option exposures detracted as precious metals equities weakened during the quarter.
• Portfolio activity remained active as the team balanced long-term gold and copper opportunities with more disciplined risk control after the sharp move in precious metals. New positions included First Quantum Minerals, Lumina Metals, Many Peaks Minerals, and Legacy Gold Mines.
• The fund increased exposure to Vault Minerals, U.S. Gold, Cascadia Minerals and Bellavista Resources. It reduced selected larger precious-metals holdings, including Gold Fields, AngloGold Ashanti, Alamos Gold, Omai Gold Mines, Perpetua Resources and Arizona Sonoran Copper, while eliminating selected smaller private-placement and option exposures.

Macro Views

• The global economy entered Q2 with several cyclical tailwinds still in place, including earlier monetary easing, fiscal support, improving construction activity and ongoing infrastructure investment. However, the quarter also demonstrated how fragile that recovery remains when geopolitical risk, energy-market disruption and U.S. dollar strength collide. Markets became more selective as the quarter progressed, and resource equities showed wide dispersion across energy, copper, gold and other materials.
• The Iran crisis continues to reinforce a shift that began around 2020. A series of globally significant events — supply-chain disruptions tied to environmental issues, COVID-19, the Russia–Ukraine war, tariffs and rising U.S.–China tensions — are all driving the world toward a multipolar order and emphasizing the need for re-industrialization, secure supply and regional redundancy.
• Even as commodity prices corrected in several areas during Q2, we believe the structural message remains intact. The world is likely to continue assigning a higher premium to secure and preferred supplies of energy, copper, chemicals, fertilizers and other critical materials. Inflationary pressure may therefore remain episodic and commodity-driven, and natural resources should continue to play an important role in protecting portfolios from the negative effects of inflation on long-dated bonds and highly valued growth equities.
• During the quarter, we reduced selected positions where price performance had outpaced fundamentals, while deploying capital into areas where the team sees more attractive risk/reward: energy infrastructure, secure gas supply, copper, refining, transportation infrastructure and selected precious-metals exploration and development opportunities.

Oil & Natural Gas

Oil markets in Q2 were characterized by violent swings rather than broad fundamental stability. The disruption around the Strait of Hormuz tightened physical availability, accelerated inventory draws and affected refinery activity and product markets. Prices later gave back a portion of the early risk premium as investors focused on demand destruction, reserve releases and the possibility of normalized trade flows. Even so, inventories remain depleted in several markets and the need to rebuild secure supply is increasingly clear. As a result, our view on oil and natural gas remains constructive over the medium term:

• We anticipate a higher geopolitical and supply-security risk premium to remain embedded in future oil and gas prices.
• Sustained demand to rebuild strategic and commercial inventories may support physical markets even when headline crude prices are volatile.
• We see the strongest prospects in midstream, liquefied natural gas, pipelines and refiners as well as super-integrated majors that span the entire value chain. Refining, LNG, midstream and pipeline assets should remain strategically important as consumers diversify sources of supply and governments focus on resilience. Furthermore, refining margins remain well-supported by wider crack spreads, driven by ongoing capacity losses in Russia and limited new global refinery additions, which continues to particularly benefit middle distillates. 

Copper

Copper remained one of the more structurally attractive commodity markets in Q2, supported by demand from electrification, grid expansion, data-centre power needs and ongoing urbanization. Prices were volatile but remained elevated relative to recent history, while the supply response continues to look slower than historical norms because of mine disruptions, declining grades, permitting constraints, limited skilled labour and a thin project pipeline. Against this backdrop, copper remains a key beneficiary of re-industrialization and the energy transition, and the team continues to find opportunities in producers and developers where valuation and project risk are appropriately balanced.

Gold & Precious Metals

• Gold sniffed out monetary and fiscal expansion in 2025 and early-2026 while also enjoying strong support from central-bank buying. By Q2, however, the thesis had become more mainstream and occasionally attracted speculative excess, which raised the risk of higher volatility and made the subsequent correction less surprising.
• The Q2 correction reflected several forces at once: short-term U.S. dollar strength, higher real-rate expectations, profit taking after a powerful rally and reduced risk appetite in more speculative precious-metals equities. This does not change the longer-term role of gold as insurance against geopolitical risk, inflation, fiscal sustainability concerns and monetary debasement.
• Gold continues to benefit from heightened concerns over monetary credibility, fiscal sustainability and an emerging multipolar world order. We see the physical bullion market being supported by three distinct market participants:
  • Central Banks, which sharply accelerated their purchases of gold after Russia’s foreign reserves were confiscated in 2022. We believe this started a multi-year trend whereby central banks of vulnerable countries reduce their exposure to the U.S. dollar and diversify into gold and other independent assets. Geopolitical strife and the desire for reserve diversification should continue to support this activity.
  • Chinese investors, who are diversifying their high savings away from faltering real estate into gold.
  • Global investors buying physical bullion, gold ETFs and crypto gold as an alternative to low real-yielding assets such as bonds, in an environment characterized by deglobalization, rising government spending, geopolitical conflict and tariff-driven inflationary pressures — conditions that ultimately challenge sovereign balance sheets and currencies.
• Going forward, gold appears well supported by continued central-bank buying, but price action will also depend on fiscal, monetary and policy actions in the U.S. and the response of many countries to an emerging multipolar order. A temporary cooling of geopolitical tensions could pause the gold price rally, but disruptive changes to the global order should continue to emphasize the need for diversification away from the U.S. dollar, thereby supporting gold over the longer term.
• Precious-metals equities have corrected from their early-2026 highs, but performance dispersion remains wide. Key drivers continue to be capital allocation, M&A discipline, operating execution, currency, country risk and cost control. This creates active management opportunities, particularly where project quality and balance sheets are being underappreciated.

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