PORTFOLIO SPOTLIGHT but most people focus on the Big Four of gold, silver, platinum and palladium.
“ Fifteen years ago we would’ ve owned some platinum and palladium companies, but that’ s no longer the case,” Bradshaw says. He notes that the electric vehicle revolution has killed the case for those two metals because palladium is mainly used in catalytic converters for gasoline internal combustion engines, and platinum is for diesel.
“ Another big use for platinum is jewelry, and that has declined. They’ re mainly industrial metals; the precious part is more on the jewelry side,” he says.
Portfolio Statistics
Number Of Positions 43 Average Mkt. Cap
$ 11.54 billion P / E Ratio 12.97x Std. Dev Fund / Benchmark 30.46 / 36.15 Turnover Ratio 14 % Net Expense Ratio 0.79 %
Manager Michael Bradshaw Age 63
Professional Background He is a senior portfolio manager and head of the Precious Metals team. He joined Allspring from its predecessor firm, Wells Fargo Asset Management. He joined the latter from Evergreen Investments, where he served in a similar role. Earlier, he served as a vice president and senior analyst with Pioneer Investment Management. He began his investment industry career as a research associate with CIBC Wood Gundy Securities Inc.
Outside Interests Pickup hockey games with friends in the winter; golfing in the summer.
Portfolio stats as of 4 / 30 / 25. Fund turnover as of 3 / 31 / 25. Standard deviation( three-year period) versus the Morningstar Global Other Precious Metals & Mining Index. Sources: Allspring Global Investments and Morningstar.
Big, But Not Too Big
When it comes to gold miners, Bradshaw says he focuses on what he thinks are the best companies that operate within the best jurisdictions. Thus, nearly 85 % of the fund’ s holdings are based in North America.
In addition, Bradshaw seeks companies with high-quality assets that he defines as having lower-than-average costs and longer-than-average mine life. He also favors companies that are debt free so they can fund themselves and not be beholden to capital markets to raise capital to build a new mine.
His ideal mining company is big enough to self-fund its operations, but not too big that it’ s a static producer with plodding growth prospects. At the same time, he likes for these“ big enough” companies to be small enough that they can expand their asset base and juice their growth with a decent-sized discovery.
One holding that fits this bill is Alamos Gold Inc., a Toronto-based company with two mines in Canada and one in Mexico. Bradshaw says it currently produces about 500,000 ounces and is expected to expand its output to about one million ounces over the next five years or so.
He notes that Alamos made a new underground discovery in Mexico that will replace an older open-pit mine and will cost less and have a higher margin. In addition, Alamos is growing production at one of its Canadian mines, and it expects to open a new mine at Lynn Lake in northern Manitoba by 2032.
“ Alamos is a low-cost operator with no debt. They operate in good jurisdictions. Production is growing. They have had exploration success. It ticks all of the boxes,” Bradshaw says.
One of the fund’ s early-stage companies is Artemis Gold, a Vancouver-based company focused on developing gold and silver deposits at the Blackwater Mine in British Columbia. Artemis recently announced initial production at the mine, and it expects large-scale commercial production to commence in this year’ s second quarter.
Bradshaw says his fund first invested in Artemis when the stock was $ 5 a share. The stock recently traded at nearly $ 23.
“ It’ s up 400 %, while gold is up 90 % during that time period,” Bradshaw says.“ If you buy the right company that delivers on a development asset and puts it into production, you can do really well. I haven’ t sold it because I feel there’ s still a lot more upside.”
He notes that Artemis should produce 200,000 ounces this year and 350,000 ounces next year.“ And then they’ ll further expand the mine to 500,000 ounces.”
Gold And The Dollar
One of the key factors affecting the price of gold is the concept of de-dollarization. As Bradshaw describes it, the U. S. is reevaluating its role in global trade, and that could mean less demand for the U. S. dollar as the major currency around the world.( The Trump administration wants to onshore manufacturing, and a weaker dollar serves that purpose by boosting the cost competitiveness of U. S.-made goods.)
Another contributor to de-dollarization is the increased gold purchases by central banks around the globe. This has been an ongoing trend driven by their desire to diversify their reserves away from the dollar. Bradshaw offers that the move toward de-dollarization could be a tailwind for gold for the foreseeable future.
Indeed, the various winds blowing through the global economy are producing a lot of uncertainty.“ There’ s always the chance for multiple outcomes,” Bradshaw says.“ There could be stagflation, deflation. Things could get worse. They can get better. There are a lot of tailwinds, headwinds … a lot of unknowns.”
Gold prices generally react during periods when the“ unknown” holds sway. It remains to be seen if gold can maintain its recent strong performance, but at the very least in the coming months— and likely beyond— it won’ t be boring.
PHOTOGRAPHY OF PORTFOLIO MANAGER COURTESY OF ALLSPRING GLOBAL INVESTMENTS JUNE 2025 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | 43