The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Feb. 20, edition that Goldman Sachs has issued a special report on metals as key investments in the current investing era. The Globe's Scott Barlow writes that analyst Daan Struyven says in a note: "As geopolitical uncertainty increases, there are signs of growing investor demand for physical assets. Hard assets are tangible, physical items that have intrinsic value, including commodities, real estate, infrastructure and equipment, and tend to hold value over time, especially during inflation or economic uncertainty. That said, metals may gain more from the shift to hard assets than energy commodities. ... While higher energy prices tend to incentivize shale oil and gas producers to increase their output, the supply of precious metals and copper is constrained. Gold mine production is stable and largely unresponsive to price. In addition, nearly all the gold that's ever been mined still exists, and this above-ground stock dwarfs annual mine production. For copper, it takes around 17 years from mine discovery for production to begin. ... Our analysis suggests that the investor rotation in hard assets can keep several metals prices high for longer."