Materials and mining companies form the backbone of the global economy. They supply the copper in our power grids, the steel in our buildings, and the gold and specialty metals used in everything from electronics to jet engines. When the world builds, the sector benefits.

The sector is also unusually diverse. Copper responds to construction and technology cycles, gold to macroeconomic risk, steel to trade policy, and defence metals to geopolitics. That diversity matters in 2026, because all four of those forces are active at once, and each is telling a different story.

How The AI Boom Affects Copper

According to Kpler, copper held near record levels in mid-July, and much of that strength traces back to artificial intelligence.¹

The world’s largest cloud and platform companies are on course to spend roughly US$725-$750 billion of capital this year, most of it on data centres.¹ These facilities are copper-intensive. This year’s construction alone is using roughly as much copper as the entire annual increase in global demand.¹

Supply cannot respond quickly. Production in Chile, home to the world’s largest copper mine, has fallen for ten straight months, and a new mine can take fifteen to twenty years to reach production.¹ That imbalance explains partly why copper has stayed near record levels.

Gold is Down, But Central Banks Are Still Buying?

Gold has had a dramatic year. According to the World Gold Council, the metal climbed above US$5,500 an ounce intraday in January before sliding below US$4,000 in late June.² That is a significant swing, yet even after the pullback, gold remains one of the best-performing assets of the past twelve months.²

The most consistent buyers have also stayed in the market. Central banks have purchased an average of 1,000 tonnes of gold a year since 2022 and are expected to continue to buy over the next year.² The price came down, but the underlying demand for gold remains in place.

What Are Tariffs Doing to Steel Prices?

According to the Cato Institute, US steel prices reached a three-year high in late June and are up roughly 70% since tariffs on all steel imports were announced on February 10, 2025.³ American mills have lifted production, imports have fallen sharply, and domestic producers now face far less foreign competition in their own market.³ As long as the tariffs remain in place, conditions continue to favour U.S. steelmakers.

How Defence Spending is a Materials Theme

Europe’s defence build-up has largely been covered as a story about tanks, jets, and soaring defence stocks. What receives less attention is the raw material behind all of it.

According to Goldman Sachs, Europe’s rearmament is expected to lift the region’s demand for industrial metals by about 6% by 2027, with copper in particular running through nearly every military system.⁴ Defence budgets take years to spend, which makes this one of the more durable sources of demand in the sector today.

Why BASE? Diversified Exposure Across The Sector’s Driving Themes

What makes these four themes compelling together is how little they depend on one another. Copper is moving on the AI build-out, gold on macroeconomic risk, steel on tariff policy, and defence metals on geopolitics. When one part of the sector slows, the others do not necessarily follow.

The Evolve Global Materials and Mining Enhanced Yield Index ETF (BASE) is an index-based ETF that invests in global materials and mining companies through an ex-Canada portfolio, providing diversification beyond domestic names. The value of that structure is balance. The impact of any one company’s setback is diluted across the broader portfolio, which is designed to capture the sector’s direction rather than a single headline. The fund pairs an active covered call strategy on up to 33% of the portfolio designed to generate tax-efficient monthly income.

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Sources:

1. https://www.kpler.com/blog/copper-the-perfect-squeeze. July 17, 2026.
2. https://www.gold.org/goldhub/research/gold-mid-year-outlook-2026. July 1, 2026.
3. https://www.cato.org/blog/steel-prices-rise-again-amid-persistent-us-tariffs. July 9, 2026.
4. https://www.euronews.com/business/2026/05/29/five-industries-benefiting-from-europes-defence-spending-boom. May 29, 2026.

DISCLAIMERS

Published August 24, 2026.

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