The best commodity funds to buy

While 2025 proved to be a boom year for commodities, and for gold and silver in particular, 2026 has been more turbulent. The year started dramatically with the US capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Despite the unprecedented nature of this intervention, global financial markets took it in their stride and the impact on oil prices was relatively muted. 

This was swiftly followed by the Iran crisis, however. Since the outbreak of the war, there has been significant volatility in both metals and oil prices. The latter surged in the wake of the conflict, while March saw the price of metals drop sharply (see chart below). Industrial metals have recovered these losses, but gold and silver remain down relative to prewar levels.

The developments have highlighted the importance of energy security and the need to create a resilient energy network. “These factors enhance the investment case for the metals and materials essential for AI, electrification, industry and defence, which is likely to gain increasing investor attention over the coming years,” says Gordon Smith, head of fund research at Killik & Co. He adds that commodities merger and acquisition activity is also likely to prove resilient as the cost of building new capacity remains more expensive than engaging with listed producers. 

Looking beyond the current geopolitical tensions, it’s worth remembering the long-term trends supporting metals other than gold and silver. “Longer-term, there are still structural supply shortages in commodities such as copper, which is clearly crucial to electrification,” says Ben Yearsley, director at Fairview Investing.

The funds 

Commodity funds come in all shapes and sizes, from single-resource trusts to more generalist plays. Given the volatility associated with the sector, your preference will probably come down to your risk appetite, but it’s also worth considering whether you want to invest in a fund that holds the commodities themselves or companies involved in their production. 

“I prefer funds and trusts focused on commodity equities and not the underlying commodities, as who can really predict what the copper price will do, or platinum?” Yearsley says. On this basis, he recommends Amati Strategic Metals (GB00BMD8NV62), which invests in a broad range of listed mining companies and is overweight to gold and, in particular, silver shares. 

This silver exposure has helped make the fund a top performer over the past year, beating its peers across both the AIC and Investment Association commodity sectors with a 161 per cent return. Over the same period the MSCI World Metals & Mining index returned 78.1 per cent, and the MSCI World Commodity Producers index returned 56 per cent. 

It may be for the same reason that Amati Strategic Metals struggled in the immediate aftermath of the outbreak of the war in Iran, falling behind many of its peers and the MSCI index, as the table below shows. However, it has regained its superior status in the past month – a move that can’t be put down to silver alone. 

Another plus point for the fund is its exposure to electric vehicle-related metals, Yearsley says. Currently, it has overweight allocations to lithium, nickel and copper, making it well primed for the renewable energy transition. 

Baker Steel Resources Trust (BSRT), an IC Bargain Share for 2026, has also had a strong year, returning 160 per cent. In comparison with Amati Strategic Metals, the trust’s performance has held steady in the wake of the conflict in the Middle East. 

The small-cap commodities trust primarily invests in unquoted companies, although it does hold some listed companies including Tungsten West (TUN) – 8.6 per cent of net asset value (NAV) – and Caledonia Mining Corporation (CMCL) (3.2 per cent of NAV) in its relatively concentrated portfolio of between 10 and 20 companies. 

In its latest annual report, published in mid-April, the trust’s managers argued that its companies were well positioned to navigate the ongoing geopolitical tensions despite the uncertainty they are causing for international trade flows, pointing to the role that some are playing in the race for resource supremacy (‘A new era for resources’, IC, 17 April 2026): “It was pleasing to see that two of our projects – the Nussir Copper Project in Norway (owned by Blue Moon) and Tungsten West’s Hemerdon Project in Devon – were selected as two of the 13 EU strategic projects located outside the EU. Likewise, both Tungsten West and First Tin (1SN) received expressions of interest for development loans from the EXIM Bank of the US,” they said.

Edison analysts argue that the maturation of Baker Steel Resources Trust’s portfolio is beginning to generate significant royalty and dividend income, citing as a prime example the trust’s stake in Futura Resources, which makes up 19.6 per cent of the trust’s NAV and is focused on metallurgical coal projects in Australia.

Baker Steel also has an open-ended option: Baker Steel Electrum (GB00BPJGV008). Over the past year, the fund has returned 128 per cent. Unlike its closed-ended sibling, it struggled following the start of the Iran war, although it has regained ground over the past month. 

At the niche end of the market, Geiger Counter (GCL) has also enjoyed strong returns recently. The trust invests in companies involved in producing and developing uranium to supply the nuclear power industry, and Quoted Data analysts argue that it is well placed to benefit from nuclear’s primary bottleneck, uranium mining. 

However, in March managers Keith Watson and Robert Crayfourd resigned, meaning significant uncertainty now hangs over the trust. Watson and Crayfourd also resigned from managing another high-profile commodity portfolio, CQS Natural Resources Growth and Income (CYN). Both trusts’ share prices dipped in the immediate aftermath of the resignations, although they have since recovered. 

Finally, BlackRock World Mining (BRWM) remains an analyst favourite thanks to the broad commodity exposure it provides. The trust invests in a range of listed mining and metals assets, with top holdings in Glencore (GLEN) (7.6 per cent of the portfolio), Rio Tinto (RIO) (7 per cent), Vale (BR:VALE3) (6.2 per cent) and Agnico Eagle Mines (CA:AEM) (5.6 per cent).  

“Last year represented an extremely strong period of returns for the BlackRock World Mining strategy, which benefited from significant increases in the price of key commodities including precious metals,” Smith says. 

He also praises the portfolio manager’s decision to increase its gold equities exposure back in 2024, as well as its longstanding overweight position in copper miners. “Performance was also enhanced by the year-end sale of the unquoted royalty investment in [a] BHP Brazil contract for a large gain,” he adds.