Merk's junior gold filing sets a $2.5 billion line that VanEck's largest holdings sit above

On Friday, September 25, Listed Funds Trust filed to register the Merk Junior Gold Miners ETF. The draft would count a company as junior only when its average market value over three months is between $25 million and $2.5 billion. The largest stocks in VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF, BGDXJ, a fund of gold and silver miners, sit far above that line.

The filing is Post-Effective Amendment No. 616, and the prospectus is marked subject to completion. Shares are not for sale, and the terms can still change. It proposes that the registration take effect on December 10, 2026, with an offering as soon as practical after that date.

BGDXJ held $8.93 billion and seeks to track smaller gold and silver miners. The index it follows is the MVIS Global Junior Gold Miners Index. MarketVector, which publishes that index, classes a company above $6 billion as large-cap, and its own table puts 62% of the index weight in that group.

Coeur Mining, 6.8% of BGDXJ, was a $19.8 billion company at Friday's close, with Alamos Gold, Equinox Gold and Iamgold also among the largest holdings.

A sleeve for miners that outgrow the band

Merk Investments LLC would advise the new fund. It would track the Solactive True Junior Gold Miners Index by owning the index rather than choosing stocks, seeking the index's total return before fees and expenses. The index generally targets about 60 stocks, and the filing says most of those names should still qualify as juniors at each rebuild. It would be rebuilt and rebalanced twice a year, currently in March and September.

A stock already in the index that grows past the ceiling can stay. The filing calls that company a Graduate, and says the sleeve is meant to limit how often stocks have to be replaced, and to keep some exposure after a company outgrows the junior band. Graduates may be no more than 25% of the targeted names, up to 15 of 60, and no more than 30% of the portfolio.

Sprott's own junior gold index has already had its ceiling raised. In September 2025, Sprott said gains had pushed many companies in its junior gold index above a $2 billion line. In December 2025, Sprott said Solactive had reset the limits as an ongoing change: new names below $3 billion, names already in the index no larger than $4 billion, and a target of 25 to 30 stocks.

Sprott Junior Gold Miners ETF, BSGDJ, holds junior gold companies, including explorers, developers and producers. It tracks a different Solactive index, the Solactive Junior Gold Miners Custom Factors Index. The fund held $355 million and owns 31 stocks. Merk's draft aims at about 60 names, and it draws the junior line at $2.5 billion, below the $3 billion line Sprott described for new names.

Merk's name is already on gold, in bullion rather than miners. Merk Investments sponsors VanEck Merk Gold ETF, BOUNZ, which holds physical gold and lets shareholders take delivery of the metal. The fund held $2.77 billion. This filing would be a step from bullion into mining stocks.

The management fee is not set. What Merk will charge, against the 0.52% on BGDXJ and the 0.50% on BSGDJ, is the number the next amendment should answer.