The mining sector has been a great place to invest over the past 12 months.
The good news is that Bell Potter doesn't believe it is too late to add exposure to the sector.
This is especially the case given its belief that we are still in the early innings of a sustained supercycle.
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What is the broker saying?
Bell Potter highlights that several megatrends are colliding and supporting structurally higher prices. It said:
Several megatrends are now colliding with a resource base that has been starved of investment for a decade. We believe new and higher price floors are being established across a basket of commodities. We see this as the early innings of a sustained supercycle. A supercycle is a structural rather than cyclical shift in demand that plays out over many years, globally and broadly at once. The 2000s cycle was built on China's industrialisation and urbanisation, and was intensive in bulk, fuel-type commodities: iron ore, coal and oil.
The cycle now forming is intensive in the materials behind electrification and compute power: copper, aluminium, uranium, lithium, nickel, and rare earths. Three structural forces are driving it together: the AI capital expenditure boom, global electrification, and deglobalisation. At the same time, supply across several of these commodities is structurally constrained, copper most of all. That constraint is the mechanism that turns strong demand into durable price floors rather than a short-lived cyclical spike.
How can you play the supercycle?
According to the note, Bell Potter has named four ASX exchange traded funds (ETFs) that it believes would be great options for investors looking for exposure to the mining supercycle.
The first two are the Betashares Global Uranium ETF (ASX: URNM) and the Global X Uranium AUD ETF (ASX: ATOM) for uranium exposure. Bell Potter highlights that uranium gives investors "direct exposure to the power constraint on AI and clean energy, with its own tight supply story."
If you are looking for copper exposure, it has named Global X Copper Miners AUD ETF (ASX: WIRE) as one to buy. The broker notes that copper is "the cleanest beneficiary of both the AI / grid build-out and electrification, against a constrained supply outlook." For this reason, copper is its top commodity pick right now.
And with Bell Potter expecting the gold price to remain strong, it is tipping the VanEck Gold Miners AUD ETF (ASX: GDX) as a buy. It believes the "de-dollarisation and central bank buying are long term structural thematics that will support the gold price."
The broker concludes:
Spot prices have already moved, with copper setting fresh records in early 2026. The miners, however, should be supported by a higher-for-longer price environment that consensus is not yet pricing. Sell-side estimates still assume reversion towards lower long-run price decks, so sustained elevated prices are reflected neither in forward earnings nor in current share prices. There will no doubt be volatility in commodity and share prices over the medium term, but we would take any weakness as a buying opportunity into this long term thematic.
