GBUG vs SGDM

GBUGDSprott Active Gold & Silver Miners ETF

SGDMBSprott Gold Miners ETF

In short

GBUG Sprott is a precious-metals house first, an ETF shop second. GBUG is its stock-picker answer to index miner funds: an actively managed, value-oriented and contrarian book of roughly 50 gold and silver miners, explorers and royalty names.

SGDM SGDM doesn't just rank gold miners by size. It tracks a custom-factors index of roughly 50 larger miners listed in Canada and the US, and charges 0.46%, under its peer group's median fee.

Stated mandate

GBUG The ETF is actively managed and seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in shares of companies focused on gold and silver exploration, development, mining, royalty, and streaming activities.

SGDM The fund seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the performance of the Solactive Gold Miners Custom Factors Index, which targets larger gold companies listed on Canadian and major U.S. exchanges.

Why people hold it

• GBUG Actively managed on a value-oriented, contrarian screen, so the book can lean toward beaten-up miners instead of whatever the market-cap index says is biggest.
• The mandate covers the whole chain: exploration, development, mining, royalty and streaming companies, not just the big producers.
• Roughly 50 holdings from a firm whose entire business is precious metals, so each pick carries real weight in the portfolio.

• SGDM Fee of 0.46% sits under the median for precious-metals miner funds, and under both GDX (0.51%) and GDXJ (0.52%).
• Rules-based and named out loud: it follows the Solactive Gold Miners Custom Factors Index (SOLGMCFT), and it has stayed close to that stated mandate.
• Running since 2014, a long life for a thematic fund, and it holds about 50 larger gold companies rather than a sprawling list.
• Lands in the upper half of the gold and silver miner group in our review, with high confidence in the underlying data.

Worth knowing

• GBUG Charges 0.90% a year, above the typical fund in the miners group; index rivals like GDX and RING run meaningfully cheaper.
• Launched in 2025, so the manager's record in this wrapper is short and any read on its risk profile rests on limited history.
• Thinly traded with a modest asset base, so spreads can run wider than the household-name miner ETFs.

• SGDM Thinly traded next to the category's giants, so spreads can be wider and larger orders can push the price around.
• The index sticks to Canadian and major US listings, so gold miners quoted only on other exchanges sit outside the portfolio.
• One industry, driven by the gold price and how well mines actually run, so the ride is bumpier than a broad stock fund.

Full GBUG profile⁠

Full SGDM profile⁠