The Easiest way to Invest in Copper Miners

Well, we think the easiest way for most investors would be to access copper miners through an ETF. Copper miners are already operating at healthy margins, as we've seen considerable price improvement in copper over the last several years. The ETF gives you some advantages over single stock selection because you do get diversification. You're not just tied to one miner.

Also, it could be difficult for some investors to access foreign markets. By investing in an ETF, the ETF can hold domestic and foreign equities. So it is an easy, well-diversified way for investors to access the copper market. The Sprott Copper Miners ETF, ticker COP, actually provides pure play exposure to copper miners.

It also has about a 5% allocation of physical silver via a closed-end fund that the ETF actually holds. And then we also have the Sprott Junior Copper Miners ETF, ticker COPJ. Again, this is a pure play strategy focusing on junior copper miners, which tend to be exploration and development companies.

In our view, we define a pure play company as a company that has at least 50% of its revenue or assets tied to mining, developing, or exploring for copper. When we look at these two ETFs, COP is the only pure play all-cap copper ETF in the US market. It also is the only ETF that provides physical copper exposure. And then COPJ is the only copper junior copper ETF offered to US investors.