Americore Resources (TSXV: AMCO)
Drilling Value in the Silver State
Global metals markets staged a powerful rally in 2025, as inflation pressures, geopolitical uncertainty and a wave of central bank gold purchases drove precious and critical mineral prices sharply higher, far outperforming traditional equities and bonds.
As investors look ahead to 2026, a new report from Canadian asset manager Sprott argues that this momentum is underpinned by deep structural shifts rather than a short‑lived cycle. The firm highlights deglobalisation, fiscal dominance and the fragmentation of global inventory systems as the three forces reshaping metals markets, and identifies gold, silver, uranium, copper and rare earths as having particularly compelling investment cases in the year ahead.
Sprott traces the current gold bull market back to 2022, when the decision by Western governments to freeze Russia’s foreign exchange reserves triggered a reassessment of what constitutes a “safe asset”. In response, central banks—especially in China—accelerated gold purchases at an unprecedented pace to diversify away from US dollar assets and hedge geopolitical risk.
Looking ahead to 2026, Sprott expects fiscal dominance and de‑dollarisation trends to deepen, with central bank demand for gold remaining elevated. Although gold prices rose sharply in 2025 and may consolidate, the firm argues that gold’s weight in global investment portfolios remains relatively low, leaving long‑term risks skewed to the upside. As a non‑sovereign, liability‑free and ultimately neutral reserve asset, gold’s strategic status is seen as increasingly important in a more fragmented and unstable financial system.
Sprott notes that silver posted an exceptional performance in 2025, with prices rising by around 148%. The rally, it says, was powered by three converging forces:
For 2026, Sprott emphasises silver’s “dual identity”. It serves both as a monetary proxy for gold—with the gold/silver ratio still at historically elevated levels, suggesting relative undervaluation of silver—and as a critical mineral in the clean energy and AI revolutions.
On the supply side, more than 80% of silver output is a by‑product of base metal mining, which limits supply responsiveness even when prices rise. At the same time, inventories are being steadily drawn down, providing firm support for prices. Sprott argues that any renewed liquidity easing or geopolitical shock could fuel further upside in silver prices.
Sprott describes the uranium market as being in a long‑term bull phase, driven by tightening fundamentals, clearer policy backing for nuclear power and new sources of demand from the technology sector. For 2026, the report points to stronger visibility of long‑term demand. The US government has announced USD 80 billion in support for new reactor construction, while major technology companies such as Microsoft and Amazon are securing nuclear power supply for data centres, linking uranium demand more directly to the growth of AI and cloud infrastructure.
On the supply side, Sprott highlights high concentration of uranium production and very long lead times for new projects, averaging around 17 years from discovery to production. In addition, utilities’ long‑term procurement contracts have for years fallen short of replacement needs, creating significant future purchasing pressure. These structural constraints, the firm concludes, suggest that uranium prices and uranium mining equities could remain strong in 2026.
After a strong breakout in 2025, copper prices continued to set new record highs into early 2026, Sprott notes. The core imbalance, in its view, lies in the intersection of slow supply growth and rapidly shifting demand. Years of under‑investment have left global copper supply growth sluggish, just as demand is pivoting away from traditional uses toward fast‑growing, strategic sectors such as energy transition infrastructure, AI data centres and defence.
Sprott argues that copper has now become a strategic bottleneck. Disruptions at major mines such as Grasberg and Kamoa‑Kakula have underscored the fragility of the supply chain, while trade fragmentation and tariffs are hindering global rebalancing of metal flows and intensifying regional shortages. With an average development timeline of around 17 years from discovery to first production, the report warns that supply deficits could persist even at elevated price levels. This environment, it suggests, positions copper miners to benefit from robust demand and highly constrained supply elasticity.
Sprott describes rare earth elements as a highly strategic bottleneck sector, where supply security is as important as price. The system’s key vulnerability, it notes, is extreme concentration of supply, with China dominating the entire value chain from mining and refining to magnet production.
In 2026, the dominant theme is expected to be the acceleration of efforts to rebuild rare earth supply chains outside China. The US government has shifted from expressing concern to direct intervention, with the Department of Defense supporting domestic capacity through equity stakes in producers, price floors and purchase commitments.
Sprott argues that any further deterioration in US‑China relations or tightening of trade policy is likely to accelerate the flow of capital and policy support toward non‑Chinese rare earth producers. For these companies, the firm sees a window of opportunity to secure funding and policy backing to build more resilient supply chains.
Sprott concludes that metals markets in 2026 will be defined by profound macro‑structural change. In an environment shaped by deglobalisation, fiscal deficit monetisation and intensifying geopolitical rivalry, metals are, in its view, evolving from simple commodities into assets central to national security and strategic autonomy.
Gold and silver continue to stand out as hedges against currency debasement and stores of value, with their financial and monetary attributes in focus. Uranium, copper and rare earths, meanwhile, form the material backbone of energy transition, technological transformation and defence modernisation, with their strategic scarcity increasingly evident.
For investors, Sprott suggests that understanding these themes and allocating accordingly to physical assets and related equities may be a key strategy for navigating future market volatility and uncertainty.
