What you need to know: • Following back-to-back positive months and new all-time highs, gold closed down slightly in June, while the gold equities sold off more dramatically. • Silver fell more sharply than gold (down 9%) following the strong outperformance in May (up 14%), and silver equities followed suit. • Copper also dropped significantly in June, down 9% to $4.4/lb while the copper equities outperformed the metal slightly, down 7%. • After two months of several all-time highs for gold and copper and 12-year highs for silver, we believe a month of consolidation like June is warranted and healthy as we continue through this bull market. Sentiment Update The metals and mining sector fell sharply in June with all 17 metals in our coverage down except palladium up just 1%. This comes on the back of a handful of positive months, and in our opinion, is a healthy retracement and period of consolidation. Gold was one of the most resilient metals in this sell-off, down just 0.6% in June, while silver and copper were down 9.2% and 8.7% respectively. The gold equities sold off more than the metal with the GDX down 3.8% and the GDXJ down 6.5%. We note the outperformance of the GDX vs. the GDXJ as the larger names are finally attracting stronger hands and being rewarded for consistency. The silver and copper equities sold off significantly alongside their respective metal, with the SIL and COPX down 10.0% and 6.3%, respectively. As expected in a month of consolidation, the mining equities underperformed broader markets with the TSX down 1.9% and the S&P500 up a sizeable 3.4%. Despite June’s performance, we remain bullish on the metals and mining sector and see this recent sell-off as a buying opportunity, specifically around the silver and copper metals and equities. Gold remains attractive, however, we believe that other metals have more upside when this trend turns around. We remind readers of our commentary in the May Mining Monthly note where we wrote about the continued outperformance and accelerating momentum of the mining sector finally appearing to attract new eyeballs and generalist investors to the space.