GDX vs GOAU

GDXBVanEck Gold Miners ETF

GOAUCU.S. Global GO GOLD and Precious Metal Miners ETF

In short

GDX The original gold miner ETF, running since 2006. Roughly 60 mining companies in one ticker, for people who want equity exposure to gold's economics rather than a bar in a vault.

GOAU Most gold-miner funds just own the diggers. GOAU's index also makes room for royalty and streaming companies, the ones that collect a cut of production without running the mine, in a concentrated lineup of about 30 names.

Stated mandate

GDX GDX seeks to track, before fees and expenses, the price and yield performance of the MarketVector Global Gold Miners Index, which is designed to represent companies involved in gold mining.

GOAU The fund tracks the U.S. Global Go Gold and Precious Metal Miners Index, which targets globally listed precious-metals companies primarily engaged in mining, production, royalties, or production streams.

Why people hold it

• GDX Launched in 2006, this is the elder statesman of gold mining funds: a multi-billion-dollar portfolio that is very actively traded, which usually means easy entries and exits.
• Owns the diggers, not the metal. It tracks the MarketVector Global Gold Miners Index, roughly 60 companies whose profits swing on the gap between gold prices and mining costs.
• At a 0.51% expense ratio it sits right at the typical price for a precious-metals miner fund, and it grades in the top quartile of its 18-fund peer group.

• GOAU The mandate reaches past pure miners: royalty and production-stream companies sit alongside producers, so the basket includes the toll-collectors of the gold business.
• About 30 holdings, so the screens actually show up in the portfolio instead of getting diluted into a whole-sector basket.
• Does what the label says, staying closely aligned with the U.S. Global Go Gold and Precious Metal Miners Index it is built to track.
• Live since 2017, so there is a real multi-year record behind it rather than a fresh launch and a backtest.

Worth knowing

• GDX Cheaper shelf-mates exist. RING covers global gold miners at 0.39%, so you are paying a bit extra here, largely for scale and trading depth.
• Miner stocks are not bullion. They carry operating costs, debt, labor and country risk on top of the gold price, so moves tend to be sharper in both directions.
• Distributions come annually or semiannually, so this is an equity growth vehicle rather than a steady income line.

• GOAU At 0.60% a year it runs above the peer-group median, and broader options like RING (0.39%) and GDX (0.51%) charge less for miner exposure.
• Thinly traded with a modest asset base, so trading costs can run wider than at the household-name miner funds.
• Concentration cuts both ways: with roughly 30 miners, one company's news lands harder here than in a sprawling sector index.

Full GDX profile⁠

Full GOAU profile⁠