What you need to know: • Precious metals were slightly down in April amid ongoing geopolitical tensions, with gold down 1.2% and silver down 1.9%. • Mining equities declined alongside metals, with GDX down 3.8%, GDXJ down 3.1%, SILJ down 1.7%, while COPX was up 4.2% alongside copper, while the TSX was up 3.7% and the S&P 500 was up 10.7%. • Q1 earnings confirmed the new price environment as Newmont posted a record $3.1B in FCF, while M&A returned in scale with Agnico Eagle’s ~C$3.8B Finland consolidation and G Mining Ventures’ C$3.0B acquisition of G2 Goldfields. Sentiment Update The U.S. Iran conflict continued to dominate headlines and dictate moves in precious metal prices through April, with oil now above $100/bbl, while gold traded in a tighter range than we have seen in previous months. The war-driven surge in energy and higher inflation levels have reset rate-cut expectations, which is technically a headwind for gold, yet the metal held its ground. With that said, we remain in a fundamentally new price environment for precious metals versus this time last year, a reality that came into clear focus with Q1 earnings reported this month. Newmont set the tone, generating a record $3.1B in quarterly free cash flow on $3.3B in net income, $5.2B of adjusted EBITDA, and AISC of $1,029/oz. Producers continued to reward shareholders aggressively. Newmont returned $2.7B since its last print (including $2.4B of buybacks under its prior authorization), declared a $0.26 quarterly dividend, and doubled its repurchase program with an incremental $6.0B authorization. With balance sheets meaningfully strengthened across the cohort, we have seen M&A increase, a theme we anticipate could accelerate through the remainder of the year. On April 20th, Agnico Eagle announced a trio of transactions valued at ~C$3.8B to consolidate Finland's Central Lapland Greenstone Belt, acquiring Rupert Resources (67% premium, ~C$2.9B), Aurion Resources (46% premium, ~C$481M), and B2Gold's 70% Fingold interest. And days earlier, on April 9th, G Mining Ventures announced its ~C$3.0B share-and-cash acquisition of G2 Goldfields (72% premium), stitching together the adjacent Oko West and Oko-Ghanie projects in Guyana. We think transactions of this nature will continue through the remainder of the year as the sector's cash-rich producers look for ways to grow.