Why have two different Copper ETFs?

Sprat provides the Sprat Copper Miners ETF, ticker COP, and the Sprat Junior Copper Miners ETF, ticker COPJ. Why two different ETFs? It's a great question because at the surface, there are some similarities that are really important, and I think that really sets the Sprat lineup apart from what we see from other strategies.

First and foremost, both are pure play strategies. What we mean by that is that they have at least 50% of their revenue or assets tied to things like copper miners, producers, or explorers. This pure play test is very important in the copper market because when you look at the 10 largest producers, only three of them are actually publicly traded or majority copper.

You could see some companies that get 10% or 12% of their revenue from mining copper would be included in other ETF strategies. In our strategies, we focus on those companies that are predominantly copper producers. By focusing on these pure-play companies, what I think investors will appreciate is that they have a lot less exposure relative to what they might have if it's more of a diversified type product.

When we look at some of the differences between the two funds, there are a few important ones. First, with COP, that's an all-cap mining ETF, so large, mid, small cap. As of June 23rd, it's also going to have the distinction of having about a 5% allocation of physical copper. This is a change that we've made to the index strategy in conjunction with NASDAQ. We think it adds an additional way for investors to access the copper market.

The pure play notion, as well as the physical component, are two things that are unique to this product versus any other ETF on the market. If we look at COPJ, it still has those pure play characteristics, but it focuses more on those smaller cap miners, which tends to be more exploration and development type companies.

A lot of times investors will like the junior space because there tends to be a little more volatility or leverage to the underlying commodity. Often times the larger miners are looking for acquisition targets to look to the junior miners. We've seen some conversations where these larger miners are looking to grow into the copper space. They're looking for pure play copper miners, and we think that's something that investors are really gravitating towards.