Lines of Defense: Assessing Positioning in a Declining Gold Price Environment

Research evidence excerpt

Lines of Defense: Assessing Positioning in a Declining Gold Price Environment

Global Research INDUSTRY NOTE

July 14, 2026 Lines of Defense: Assessing Positioning in a Declining Gold

■Metals & Minerals Price Environment

Wayne Lam, CFA^ THE TD COWEN INSIGHT

416 983 9588 With the recent pullback in gold price, we have assessed company positioning in the event of further weakness ahead.

wayne.lam@tdsecurities.com While we remain constructive on sector fundamentals with healthy margins vs past cycles, we have tempered our near-

Steven Green, CFA^ term outlook (see Q2 Preview) and outline areas of potential shift in positioning should headwinds continue to persist.

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steven.green@tdsecurities.com Shifting Positioning in a Downward Pricing Environment

Jennifer Mao^ We view potential for a shift in investor positioning should metals prices continue to experience further weakness ahead. In

416 308 2360 the event of ongoing headwinds, we would anticipate three areas of changed focus and investor allocation including:

jennifer.mao@tdsecurities.com

1 Focus on lower cost/lower beta names: In a declining gold price environment, we anticipate a shift to companies with

Faiq Qadri, P. Eng^ lower torque/beta to gold. Given most being in net cash positions with low financial leverage, we view greater emphasis

416 308 3741 on those with less operating leverage via lower cost structures, able to withstand further margin compression. We

faiq.qadri@tdsecurities.com highlight those with lower costs/leverage including AEM, NEM, ARTG, EDV, LUG, DPM, and KNT (page 9).

Derick Ma, CFA, CPA, CA^

2 Focus on FCF over growth: We anticipate greater focus on companies able to generate robust FCF in spite of lower

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