Disruptions at major copper mines run by Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (ticker: OTC: IVPAF), Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX), Teck Resources Ltd. (TECK) and Chilean state-owned miner Codelco have impacted roughly 450,000 metric tons of supply this year.
While these disruptions have affected the companies involved with them, they’ve also helped boost the price of copper roughly 25% to more than $5 per pound for futures traded in New York.
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“All these disruptions have materially tightened copper supply and demand balances for both this year and 2026,” John Berman, chief investment officer at natural resources investment management company Berman Capital Group, said in a recent note to investors. This offers an illustration of why investors interested in copper may want to consider using exchange-traded funds, or ETFs.
Higher copper prices are a boon for copper mining companies that aren’t experiencing operational issues, meaning owning a large basket of miners can help boost a portfolio even if some of those companies aren’t doing as well.
Miners can face a host of headwinds including social unrest, permitting headaches, natural disasters, projects not panning out as expected, acquisitions not working out as well as forecast and poor management decisions.
“It is an inherently risky business and can be in geopolitically challenging parts of the world,” says Darrell Fletcher, managing director for commodities at Bannockburn Capital. “Where it is mined and or refined is not necessarily where it is needed and used.”
That’s not even taking into account the cyclicality of the metal’s price. Copper, especially, is tied to the ups and downs of the global economy because it is so widely used in housing, automobiles, electronics and many other everyday items. Because copper has to be ordered so far ahead of when finished goods that use it are produced, it is often seen as an advance economic indicator, so much so that the red metal is often referred to as Dr. Copper (as if it had an advanced degree in economics).
One way to manage company-specific risk is by doing your homework into company fundamentals, like with any other stock. Another way is to own many different stocks. This last way can get expensive, though, if you’re buying and selling individual stocks. There can be fees associated with trades, not to mention the time you’ll spend delving into each company’s specifics.
That’s fine for professional investors, but everyday retail-level investors may want to use ETFs. These investment vehicles can be a convenient and relatively inexpensive way to play the copper theme. The most common copper ETFs are those that invest in a multitude of different copper-miner stocks but trade on an exchange under a single ticker symbol. These offer instant diversification in a one-stop package.
“A copper ETF gives the investor a broader basket of copper miners and production as opposed to a single miner, which diversifies out the risk a single company may have,” Fletcher says. “ETFs also typically pay a dividend as opposed to just owning the metal or futures. It is a less volatile way to gain exposure by diversifying and avoiding high volatility in direct futures ownership.”
Other copper ETFs are backed by futures contracts or by physical copper. These offer the ease of buying shares like stocks and avoid the hassle of setting up a futures account to trade those risky derivatives or the impracticality of stockpiling the physical metal on your own.
The Case for Investing in Copper
So why would you want to own copper in the first place?
Copper demand is expected to remain strong amid the transition in the power and grid distribution industry from fossil fuels to renewables. Like with electric vehicles, there is more copper used in renewable electricity installations such as solar and wind farms than there is in traditional power plants.
And even as the world will need more for wind and solar farms and an improved grid, there is an emerging source of demand that will increase the need for electricity altogether: artificial intelligence.
For many years, electricity demand in the U.S. has been relatively flat, but the data centers that run powerful computers that back AI internet searches and proprietary AI for businesses need a lot of power to run. Copper will be integral to that expansion because it is an excellent conductor of electrons, relatively cheap and abundant.
“The increasing use of the metal in infrastructure for AI power as well as EVs has supported higher prices fundamentally and going forward,” Fletcher says.
Another reason to consider investing in copper is as an inflation hedge. When economic activity is going well, prices for goods and services tend to rise. That includes copper prices, meaning you can profit, or at least hedge, from inflationary pressure.
With that in mind, here’s a look at four top copper equity ETFs:
| Copper ETF | Expense Ratio | Yield |
| Global X Copper Miners ETF (COPX) | 0.65% | 1.3% |
| iShares Copper and Metals Mining ETF (ICOP) | 0.47% | 1.9% |
| Sprott Copper Miners ETF (COPP) | 0.65% | 1.9% |
| Sprott Junior Copper Miners ETF (COPJ) | 0.76% | 6.8% |
Global X Copper Miners ETF (COPX)
With $3.4 billion in assets under management, this is one of the biggest copper mining equity ETFs traded on U.S. markets.
That size can be important, as it generally correlates to higher liquidity, which means investors may find it easier to buy or sell shares quickly on any given trading day.
The fund holds about 40 mining companies and tracks the Solactive Global Copper Miners Total Return Index.
While the fund holds large copper mining companies, no stock takes up more than 6% of the fund’s holdings, meaning it won’t suffer as much if a single company runs into trouble.
The fund has an expense ratio of 0.65%, or $65 annually on $10,000 invested.
iShares Copper and Metals Mining ETF (ICOP)
While the size of a fund is important, it’s not the only consideration for investors.
This offering from BlackRock Inc. (BLK), for example, is much smaller, with about $100 million in assets under management, but it is backed by a major Wall Street firm and has an expense ratio of just 0.47%.
Like COPX, this fund tracks an index, and that passivity helps keep fees low compared with funds that pay managers to adjust holdings based on a variety of factors instead of simply rebalancing them at regular intervals to match changes in an index.
Compared with COPX, this fund gives more weight to certain miners, including B shares of Grupo Mexico S.A.B. de C.V. (GMEXICOB.MX) at 8.4% of its portfolio, Anglo American PLC (AAL.L) at 7.7% and BHP Group Ltd. (BHP) at 7.5%.
But these are all well-established mining companies, and there are many other miners in the fund, meaning the risk is well spread out.
Sprott Copper Miners ETF (COPP)
This fund focuses on large-, mid- and small-cap copper miners. Also index-based, the fund tracks the Nasdaq Sprott Copper Miners Index, which includes copper producers, developers and explorers. The fund also includes an allocation to physical copper, allowing a portion of the fund to track the red metal aside from company-specific issues.
That type of diversification can be important in mining investment, as different types of miners have different risk profiles.
Producers are the least risky, as they are generally established and are getting metal out of the ground that they can sell, providing cash flow. Also, they often have more than one mine in production, meaning they are better able to weather production stoppages from labor unrest, accidents, natural disasters and political turbulence in the far-flung places where miners often operate.
Meanwhile, companies that are developing mines or simply exploring for deposits are more risky but can offer more reward.
The fund has an expense ratio of 0.65%.
Sprott Junior Copper Miners ETF (COPJ)
This fund focuses on that latter end of the spectrum, tracking an index of mid-, small- and micro-cap companies in copper mining-related businesses.
While many mining companies don’t survive long for a variety of reasons, such as lack of funding, small exploration-stage companies can provide substantial returns if they find an excellent deposit.
If that happens, they often sell themselves to larger mining companies, providing investors with quicker returns, or develop the deposit themselves, which is a lengthy and risky process but can create substantial long-term value.
That also brings up one of the risks of ETFs. Because they hold so many companies, they are unlikely to perform as well as a single miner that strikes it big.
COPJ has an expense ratio of 0.76%.
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4 Best Copper ETFs to Buy originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 11/14/25: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
