Hargreaves Lansdown has added the Smith & Williamson (S&W) Global Gold & Resources Fund to the prestigious preferred list of funds known as the HL Wealth 150 list of sector funds.

Meera Patel, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, told WhatInvestment.co.uk that the fund, which is managed by Canada-based AG Investments, has the ‘potential for growth’.

The fund mainly invests in the shares of precious metals companies, while up to 25 per cent is available to invest in non-precious metals. It currently has 54 per cent invested in gold mining shares and 24 per cent in other precious metals.

‘We’re seeing a major disconnect between gold bullion prices and the share prices of gold mining, which has widened this year. We think it’s a great opportunity for gold mining shares to do well.

‘This particular fund tends to be biased to the smaller mid cap area of the market and we feel that area has the greatest potential for growth,’ she added.

Patel explained that many of the firms the fund looks to invest in are located in Canada, although the company also considers companies in higher risk emerging countries.

The fund operates a ‘buy and hold’ strategy, finding companies at a very early stage and following them through from exploration and development to production.

The S&W fund will be jointly managed by Bob Lyon and Ani Markova.

Fund manager Lyon joined AGF – the minority shareholder of Smith & Williamson – in 2008 with nearly 20 years of investment industry experience. AGF is a Canadian investment group, based in Toronto.

Lyon has notable experience in portfolio management and marketing of resource funds.