Sprott Junior Copper Miners ETF

COPJ

Market cap $166M

The Sprott Junior Copper Miners ETF (NASDAQ:COPJ) is the highest-beta public-market vehicle for betting that AI data center buildout breaks the copper supply curve over the next two years.

While gold has proved to be a hot commodity for the last few months, some naysayers have looked at March's short-term volatility as a reason to stay away from the precious metal for now.

In recent months, there has been a lot of discussion about the importance of amplifying the domestic production and supply chains for rare earths in the United States. Given that China maintains a significant hold over the global market, the U.S. looking to increase its own rare earths presence makes a good deal of sense.

Copper has climbed from roughly $9,173 per metric ton in April 2025 to nearly $12,951 per metric ton in early 2026, a move driven by structural demand from electric vehicles, data center buildouts, and grid electrification that shows no sign of reversing.

The Sprott Junior Copper Miners ETF is rated "Hold" due to compelling valuation but deteriorating technicals and high volatility. COPJ trades at a low 7.6x P/E and boasts a 19% long-term EPS growth rate, resulting in a PEG below 0.3x. Despite a high 11.52% yield and strong 1-year returns, COPJ faces bearish momentum, broken uptrend, and weak seasonality through September.

Key Takeaways While energy investments of all kinds have struggled amid conflict in the Middle East, uranium might offer a compelling long-term opportunity. Sprott Asset Management CEO John Ciampaglia noted that uranium's fundamentals remain sound, and that it remains far harder to substitute or replace than other metals investors tend to allocate towards.

Sprott Junior Copper Miners ETF focuses on 50 global copper miners, most of which are small and micro-caps primarily involved in the exploration and development part of copper mining. Despite wide bid-ask spreads and high annual turnover, COPJ boffers, exposure to high growth and cheap stocks, and levered exposure to a tightening copper supply/demand dynamic. Growing lead times in mine production is disincentivizing established miners from greenfield investment and driving higher appetite for M&A, which could prompt these junior miners to get acquired at premiummultiples.

Silver is entering its sixth consecutive year of a structural supply deficit, as global production fails to keep pace with the massive demand required for the clean energy transition and AI infrastructure.

Earlier this year, when gold and silver started seeing shakier price performances, some turned to copper as a metal with strong fundamentals backing its rising prices.  Now, ongoing geopolitical tensions are causing the red metal to feel a bit of the pain, too.

A portfolio with an underinvestment in copper may not translate to a clean bill of health from “Dr. Copper.” The structural shifts transforming the global copper market is creating explosive growth opportunities in the metal.