What you need to know: • Precious metals recovered through February, with gold climbing back and silver stabilizing in the $90s following January’s late-month pullback, with all major metals remaining meaningfully higher on an LTM basis. • Mining equities significantly outperformed underlying metals, with the GDX (+23.0%), GDXJ (+25.7%), SILJ (+25.3%), and COPX (+12.9%), while the TSX delivered a standout +7.6% vs. the S&P 500’s -0.7%. • Critical minerals policy took a major step forward as the US, EU, and Japan signed an agreement and launched the FORGE forum, while Q4/25 earnings season delivered record annual FCF for major producers. February proved to be a month of recovery and recalibration for the mining sector, as precious metals stabilized following the sharp retreat from all-time highs that closed out January in its final trading days. The recovery through February has been steady, with gold climbing back above $5,000/oz and silver stabilizing now back over $90s/oz. Importantly, all major metals remain meaningfully higher on a 12-month basis and are beginning to establish higher price floors. The Q4/25 earnings season delivered a powerful validation of the bull case for senior producers, with the three largest gold miners all reporting record annual FCF. Agnico generated record full-year FCF of $4.4B and returned a record $1.4B to shareholders via dividends and buybacks, raising its quarterly dividend by 12.5% in the process. Newmont generated $7.3B in full-year FCF and ended the year in a net cash position, while Barrick saw quarterly FCF surge 193% YoY and introduced a new policy targeting 50% of FCF returned to shareholders. Despite this, M&A among the majors has remained tame, with management teams taking a cautious approach and prioritizing shareholder returns. With that said, we did see a notable acquisition amongst the mid-tiers via Eldorado’s acquisition of Foran Mining (see more information on this below), and a potential mega merger between Rio Tinto and Glencore was scrapped at the bid deadline. On the critical minerals front, February saw meaningful policy progress as the US, EU, and Japan signed a cooperation agreement to identify and support priority mining and processing projects, with VP Vance outlining a vision for a preferential trade zone with enforceable price floors designed to shield member countries from Chinese market intervention. The newly formed FORGE forum succeeded the Minerals Security Partnership with a broader mandate covering policy alignment and cross-border project coordination, while Canada emerged as a focal point, with the IEA flagging it as a major potential supplier of key minerals and Canada's first Defence Industrial Strategy formally designating critical minerals as foundational to national security.