Purpose Investments’ Jeremy Lin.Alice Xue/The Globe and Mail
Jeremy Lin began investing after graduating with a computer engineering degree in 2009 and working as a software consultant. Being young and wanting to make money quickly, he began day trading with leverage. He bought and sold energy and real estate securities, and found arbitrage opportunities in precious metals funds. After earning an MBA from the University of Toronto and a chartered financial analyst designation, he took on a more risk-focused investing approach. He also did a stint as a tech analyst before joining Purpose Investments in 2018 to run fixed-income funds. He began managing the $172-million Purpose Global Resource Fund in 2019, and it has since outpaced the S&P Global Natural Resources Index in Canadian dollars. We asked Lin if a new commodity bull market is under way and why he favours Americas Gold and Silver.
Your all-cap fund owns gold, silver, copper, energy, lithium and uranium securities. Describe your investment strategy.
You can’t be bullish on a commodity forever, because there are bull and bear cycles. Our fund has outperformed by moving to the right sector at the right time. Until mid-2024, we were over 90% in energy, but then rotated into gold, silver and copper in a big way. However, we still own energy names such as Tenaz Energy, a Dutch North Sea natural gas producer that has been a 10-bagger. In early 2025, we owned more small-cap miners. Now, more than half of the fund is in mid-caps, which is the sweet spot given that commodity prices are a bit more volatile and range-bound.
Gold and gold miners are 30% of your fund. What’s your outlook for the metal as it fluctuates in the US$5,000-per-ounce range?
We see a structural, secular demand from central banks ramping up gold purchases. It began after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the U.S., along with its Western allies, froze Russia’s foreign reserves. More countries are diversifying from U.S.-dollar assets to avoid that risk. Brazil and Guatemala are new gold buyers. Tether [a digital asset backed by gold] is accumulating the metal, too. This trend will likely play out over the next decade. There’s not enough supply to meet demand, because it can take up to 10 years to build a new mine. We own gold companies, such as Troilus Mining and Skeena Gold +Silver, which are also potential takeover targets.
Given rising commodity prices for various metals in 2025, are we in a new commodity supercycle?
A bull market has started, but it’s early innings. The commodities are also at different places in their cycle. Gold is the big one now, and gold stocks have been up hugely over the past year. However, the stock multiples of many gold miners haven’t moved, so there’s not a lot of froth. Silver, which is also used in industrial manufacturing, has become a critical mineral. Copper is part of the AI trade because it’s needed in data centres. The big theme for these metals is a supply deficit because, until last year, miners have had difficulty getting financing for new projects.
What is your outlook for silver after it hit record highs this year?
I am still bullish on silver. In addition to being a precious metal, its use in solar panels has risen. Although the silver content in them has been falling slowly due to cheaper replacement metals, solar-panel adoption is still rising. Supply is tight. Only 25% of the world’s silver supply comes from silver mines, while the rest is a byproduct of gold, copper, lead and zinc mines.
Americas Gold and Silver is a top holding. Why?
Its Galena complex in Idaho is mainly a silver producer, but it also has a byproduct in antimony, which is used in military applications like missiles. The largest shareholder is Eric Sprott, who has a 14% interest. In addition to a rising silver price, we like this miner because it plans to double production over the next two years. It also recently signed a joint-venture agreement to build an antimony processing plant in Idaho. The U.S. government could potentially acquire an equity stake in this miner, or provide it with cheap financing because silver and antimony are critical minerals.