URNM's 0.44% premium left a 13.5% sleeve 7.23% below uranium
Sprott Uranium Miners ETF URNM stood at a 0.44% premium on Friday, September 4, 2026, while its 13.5% Sprott Physical Uranium Trust holding sat at a 7.23% discount to the metal.
Sprott's uranium miners fund URNM finished Friday at a 0.44% premium. A 13.5% sleeve inside it, the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust, stood 7.23% below the uranium it holds: 0.98% of the ETF, and a gap the fund's own premium/discount field will never show. The outer wrapper did its job. The inner one is allowed, by design, not to.
URNM held a closed-end uranium trust at 13.5%
URNM reported a NAV of $56.88 on Friday and a 4 p.m. ET midpoint of $57.13, that 0.44% premium, against a 30-day median spread of 0.24% as of Thursday. That is a small gap on a $2.12 billion ETF that can create and redeem.
One holding cannot. The fund held the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust at 13.5% of assets, behind only Cameco, the uranium miner, at 19.3%.
The uranium trust is URNM's second-largest holding
- 19%
- 14%
- 13%
- 5.3%
- 5.0%
- 5.0%
- 4.9%
- 4.5%
- 4.2%
- 3.8%
The trust is a closed-end vehicle for pounds of U3O8, not an ETF. On Friday it reported a NAV of $21.54 and a 7.23% discount, with 81.7 million pounds in the vault.
The 0.98% is not a fee to trade URNM. The miners fund already marks the trust units at the market price. It is the share of the ETF that lives in a vehicle with no daily create window against the uranium. URNM itself has no one-way regime: it traded at a premium on 29 days and a discount on 32 in the second quarter. Calendar 2025 ran 132 premium days against 115 discount days.
SLV's official premium followed the London noon auction
iShares values the physical silver trust SLV on each day's announced LBMA Silver Price, an auction that starts at 12:00 noon London time: 7 a.m. Eastern. The shares keep trading on NYSE Arca until 4 p.m. When silver falls through the U.S. day, the tape follows the metal and the NAV does not. When silver rises after 7 a.m., the published field flips the other way.
On Friday, August 28, SLV closed at $60.02, down 4.4% on the session, and iShares posted a 5.46% discount. By Thursday, September 3, the same field read a 2.08% premium on a $60.54 midpoint. The 30-day median bid/ask spread, still 0.02% as of Thursday, is what a liquid silver trust looks like when the wrapper is doing its job. The 2.08% figure is not a 2.08% trading cost.
SLV published these official readings, each using that day's 4 p.m. midpoint against that day's London-noon NAV:
Friday, September 4, repeated the clock in the other direction. iShares posted a NAV of $60.38, up $1.07, or 1.81%. The shares closed at $59.82, down 1.2%, and the official field printed a 0.93% discount.
The Nasdaq-100 fund QQQ closed Friday at $718.96 against a same-session NAV of $719.18, a 0.03% discount. U.S. exchanges are shut Monday for Labor Day. Tuesday's premium will have to be dated against whatever NAV the sponsors post after a three-day gap. The field on URNM will still not show you the trust. The field on SLV will still be waiting on London.
Frequently asked
Why does the physical uranium trust trade at such a deep discount?
The trust is a closed-end vehicle with no daily creation and redemption mechanism to keep its share price aligned with the value of the metal in its vault.
Why doesn't the uranium ETF's premium reflect this underlying discount?
The ETF values the trust at its current market price rather than its net asset value, masking the gap.
Why does the silver ETF show highly volatile premiums and discounts?
The fund is valued using a London price set at noon, which creates a mismatch when silver prices move during the remaining hours of U.S. trading.