Sprott is a Toronto-headquartered asset manager specializing in precious metals and critical materials (NYSE/TSX: SII), tracing its roots to Sprott Securities founded by Eric Sprott in 1981 and now led by CEO Whitney George. It runs physical gold, silver and uranium trusts, ETFs, active strategies and resource lending, with about $65bn in AUM. The Insights column carries monthly commentaries and white papers on uranium, gold, silver, copper and critical materials by Paul Wong, Jacob White and John Hathaway (ex-Tocqueville gold manager) — note the house's structurally bullish commodity stance, as it sells the corresponding trusts and ETFs.
In 2025, metals saw huge gains: silver rose 148%, gold 65%, while the S&P 500 (a stock index) gained only 18% and bonds 7%. Why? High inflation and global uncertainty pushed investors toward hard assets like gold, while demand for metals from the energy transition grew faster than supply, as mining investment had been too low. For ordinary investors, this suggests that adding metals to a portfolio could help protect against inflation and capture strong returns, not just relying on stocks and bonds.
In 2025, metal assets delivered outstanding performance, with the precious metals sector being particularly strong: gold rose 64.58%, silver surged 147.95%, platinum climbed 127.04%, and palladium increased 77.51%, all significantly outperforming traditional assets. Industrial and energy transition
This chapter focuses on the overall performance of metal assets in 2025, comparing them with traditional assets (stocks and bonds). The report points out that against the backdrop of persistent inflation, rising geopolitical uncertainty, and accelerating energy transition demand, metal assets became one of the strongest-performing asset classes that year.
The author’s core judgment is that in 2025, metal assets comprehensively outperformed traditional assets, with precious metals performing particularly prominently. The counterintuitive aspect is that despite bonds and stocks being mainstream allocations in conventional wisdom, metals (especially silver and platinum) delivered returns far exceeding the S&P 500 and bonds, highlighting the strong appeal of hard assets in the current macroeconomic environment.
The report directly supports its viewpoint through a comparison of returns across various asset classes in 2025. All data are based on spot prices or indices.
| Asset Class | 2025 Return |
|---|---|
| Silver (Spot Price) | 147.95% |
| Platinum (Spot Price) | 127.04% |
| Palladium (Spot Price) | 77.51% |
| Gold (Spot Price) | 64.58% |
| Lithium (China Lithium Carbonate 99.5%) | 64.61% |
| Copper (LME Copper Spot Price) | 43.93% |
| S&P 500 Total Return Index | 17.88% |
| Bonds (Bloomberg Barclays US Agg Total Return) | 7.30% |
The report attributes the strong performance of metals to two core drivers:
1. Macro Safe-Haven Demand: Persistent inflationary pressures, rising geopolitical uncertainty, and central bank gold purchases collectively strengthened the appeal of hard assets as a store of value.
2. Tightening Supply-Demand Fundamentals: Years of underinvestment in mining have tightened supply, while demand driven by the energy transition, electrification, and infrastructure spending is accelerating, creating a favorable backdrop for metal prices.
This chapter does not mention specific companies, only analyzing asset classes. The assets involved include:
For investors, the report suggests: