Gold and silver miner ETFs stalled after 2025, and the labels are not the portfolios

The VanEck Gold Miners ETF BGDX is up 2.3% in price this year through Friday, Oct. 16, after rising 153% in calendar 2025. Gold futures fell 3.7% over that same stretch of 2026, after rising 64% the year before.

The stall is against the stock market. The State Street SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust ASPY rose 11.9% in price over the same window.

The fund has not tracked the metal by any stable multiple. Last year its price rose more than twice as much as gold futures. This year the fund is up and the futures are down.

BGDX holds shares in the companies that produce and sell the metal. It is the largest fund in the theme, with $26.8 billion in assets and a 0.51% fee, and it tracks the MarketVector Global Gold Miners Index. The rest of the group ran from a 6.4% gain to a 7.3% loss.

Where the funds landed this year

Assets are the latest on file. Holdings are as of Oct. 19, except CSIL, as of Oct. 13. The year-to-date price change runs from the Dec. 31, 2025 close to the Oct. 16 close and does not include dividends.

BRING charges 0.39%, the least in this group, and puts 17.2% in Newmont. Its top 10 holdings are 66.9% of the fund.

BGDX is led by Agnico Eagle at 11.4% and Newmont at 11.2%, with Barrick Mining at 8.0%. Barrick Mining is the name Barrick Gold took in May 2025.

The top 10 holdings of BGDX are 59.5% of the fund, against 66.9% for BRING. The cheaper fund is the more concentrated one.

BSGDM is up 6.4%, the widest gain in the table. It tracks the Solactive Gold Miners Custom Factors Index, which Sprott says is designed to emphasize larger gold companies with the highest revenue growth, free cash flow yield and the lowest long-term debt to equity. The list is rebuilt each quarter.

A quarter of the silver fund is a streaming company

Silver futures fell 18.8% over the same window. CSIL fell 1.2%. CSILJ fell 7.3%.

CSIL tracks the Solactive Global Silver Miners Total Return Index. Wheaton Precious Metals was 24.2% of the fund on Oct. 13. Wheaton does not run a mine.

In results released Aug. 6, the company called itself a precious metals streaming company. Revenue that quarter was $929 million, 46% from gold and 52% from silver, with the rest from other metals.

In its 2026/2027 guidebook, Wheaton describes a stream as an upfront payment to an independent mining company for a percentage of the metal a mine produces, plus a further payment when the metal is delivered.

Nearly a quarter of CSIL was that company. Over the same window, the fund fell 1.2% and silver futures fell 18.8%.

BGDX holds the same company at 5.6% as of Oct. 19. Franco-Nevada and Royal Gold, two more streaming and royalty companies, bring that group to 12.8% of the gold-miner fund. In CSIL, one of them is the position that dominates.

The U.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF CGOAU covers, in its own description, companies whose primary focus is the production of precious metals, through either direct operational engagement or more indirect, passive involvement. It has $182 million in assets and charges 0.60%. Franco-Nevada, Royal Gold and Wheaton, the same streaming and royalty companies, are the top three holdings, together 30.4%.

CSIL, the larger of the two silver-miner funds, is the more concentrated. Its top 10 holdings are 76.3% of the fund.

CSILJ holds Wheaton at 6.1%. Its largest position is Hecla Mining at 10.0%, and its top 10 are 59.0%.

The Sprott Silver Miners & Physical Silver ETF DSLVR launched on Jan. 14, 2025. It has $650 million in assets and charges 0.65%. It tracks an index of silver-mining companies and publicly traded closed-end trusts that hold physical silver.

On Oct. 19, First Majestic Silver was 19.7% of the fund and the Sprott Physical Silver Trust was 18.2%. The name covers miners and physical silver, and those are the two largest holdings.

Two junior gold funds, two portfolios

BGDXJ charges 0.52%, holds $8.1 billion, and tracks the MVIS Global Junior Gold Miners Index, a benchmark of smaller companies mining gold, silver, or both. It has 161 holdings. Its top 10 are 40.8% of the fund, against 59.5% for BGDX.

The weights differ, not only the count. The junior fund's five largest holdings are 29.6% of BGDXJ and about 8% of BGDX. Alamos Gold, the largest, is 6.7% of the junior fund and 1.9% of BGDX.

The two funds share 44 holdings as of Oct. 19. The prices diverged too: BGDX up 2.3%, BGDXJ down 3.4%.

The Sprott Junior Gold Miners ETF BSGDJ is the other junior gold fund. It charges 0.50%, has $318 million in assets, and tracks the Solactive Junior Gold Miners Custom Factors Total Return Index.

Wesdome Gold Mines is the largest holding, at 5.4%, in a 32-stock portfolio. Through Friday the fund's price was up 0.3%.

The multiple did not carry over

A miner fund can move more than the metal because of operating leverage. Profit is the gold price minus the cost of producing an ounce. When the price changes and the cost does not, profit changes by the same number of dollars, and that dollar change is a larger percentage of profit than of the gold price.

The World Gold Council, in an analysis published Aug. 24, put the industry's average all-in sustaining cost at $1,785 an ounce in the first quarter, up 16% from a year earlier. That measure is what it costs to keep producing an ounce, not only to dig the ore. The council called the quarter the 28th consecutive year-on-year increase in that cost.

The average margin over the cost was $3,076 an ounce, up 134%. The council said the gold price rose faster than costs.

Added together, the cost and the margin are a gold price of $4,861 an ounce. A $100 move at that price is 2.1% of the gold price and 3.3% of the margin. That is what a 153% year next to a 64% year looked like.

Carried into this year, the same mechanism would have had BGDX falling by more than gold. Gold futures are down 3.7%, and the fund is up 2.3%.

The mechanism describes profit. The fund's price is a separate number, and the only full industry reading of the cost is still the first quarter.

September was closer to the mechanism. From the Aug. 31 close to the Sept. 30 close, gold futures fell 6.6% in price and BGDX fell 10.9%. BGDXJ fell 10.9% on the same basis.

The year to date has not looked like that month.

Newmont, 11.2% of BGDX, reported on July 23 that all-in sustaining cost in the second quarter was $1,621 an ounce, against $1,375 a year earlier. The figure credits revenue from other metals against the cost of gold.

Free cash flow was $2.2 billion, against $1.7 billion. The cost was higher than a year earlier, and so was the cash the company generated.

The World Gold Council's Aug. 24 analysis also said Ghana, in March, replaced a flat 5% royalty with a sliding scale that reaches 12% when the gold price exceeds $4,500 an ounce. Gold futures closed Friday at $4,181, below that step, so the top rate is not the one that applies at the latest close. A higher gold price can move a mine up that scale.

Newmont is due to release third-quarter results after the close on Thursday, Oct. 22. Friday's close of $4,181 was more than twice the first-quarter cost of $1,785. The report is the next reading of what the company kept after costs.