Copper ETF alternative to build your own copper miners stocks index and backtest it against COPX
The biggest copper miner fund keeps a quarter of your money in diversified giants like BHP and Glencore, and another popular one puts a quarter of it in a single stock. Pick the copper producers and developers you actually want, set the weights, and see how the basket would have done next to COPX and the S&P 500. Then buy it at your own broker.
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In short
A copper ETF alternative is a basket of copper mining stocks you weight yourself instead of taking a fund's rule. It matters because the copper miner funds own different things. Summing every holding, companies whose main business is copper made up 97.7% of Sprott's COPJ and 93.0% of Sprott's COPP on October 22, 2026, but 67.1% of Global X's COPX, 64.2% of Themes' COPA and 58.1% of iShares' ICOP (June 30), which also held 12.1% in gold miners. Building your own copper miners stocks index means choosing that mix, backtesting it, and buying the stocks at a broker with no expense ratio.
Summed from each fund's published holdings and SEC filings
How much of each copper ETF is actually copper miners?
Every holding sorted by what the company mainly sells. Copper is copper-first miners, developers and copper smelters. Grey is diversified majors that own big copper mines but earn most of their money from iron ore, coal, zinc or trading. Gold is gold and silver miners. Blue is everything else, from royalty companies and copper foil makers to a physical copper trust and cash.
Sprott COPJ
97.7% copper
The purest copper fund, and almost all small companies: under 7% overlap with COPX
Sprott COPP
93% copper
Copper first, but Freeport-McMoRan alone is 25.0%; other includes a 5.5% physical copper trust
Global X COPX
67.1% copper
BHP, Glencore, Boliden, Zijin and two Japanese smelting groups are 25.9%
Themes COPA
64.2% copper
Other includes Chinese copper foil and processing companies, 14.1% in all
iShares ICOP
58.1% copper
Gold miners Evolution, Barrick and Newmont were 12.1% at June 30
Start with COPX, because it is the copper fund most people buy. At $6.67 billion it is larger than the other four copper miner funds combined, many times over, and its index holds about 40 stocks in roughly equal sized slices. On October 22 the top of the list was Teck at 5.7%, Southern Copper 5.6%, BHP 5.6%, Hudbay 5.5% and Freeport-McMoRan 5.3%. That looks like a copper list until you sort it. BHP earns most of its money from iron ore, Glencore from trading, coal and a range of metals, Boliden from zinc and smelting as well as copper, and Sumitomo Metal Mining and Mitsubishi Materials are Japanese smelting and materials groups. Together with Zijin, those diversified names were 25.9% of COPX. Gold miners such as China Gold International added another 4.9%. Copper-first companies were 67.1%, about two dollars in three.
COPP solves that by holding almost nothing but copper companies, 93.0%, plus a 5.5% stake in the Sprott Physical Copper Trust, which owns metal in warehouses. The price of that purity is concentration. Freeport-McMoRan alone was 25.0% of COPP and Teck 10.5%, and the ten largest positions were 74.9% of the fund. If Freeport has a bad quarter at its Grasberg mine in Indonesia, a quarter of COPP feels it. In COPX the same stock is 5.3%.
ICOP is the one to read twice. Its name says copper and metals mining, and in its June 30 SEC filing its largest holdings were BHP at 8.2%, Anglo American 8.1% and Grupo Mexico 8.0%, with Rio Tinto, Vale and Glencore further down. Gold miners Evolution Mining, Barrick and Newmont added 12.1%. Copper-first miners were 58.1%, the lowest of the five. COPJ sits at the other extreme: 97.7% copper, but small producers and developers such as Minsur, Ero Copper, Trekor Metals (the former Taseko Mines) and Ivanhoe Electric, and it overlaps COPX by only 6.9%. It is a different fund, not a smaller version of the same one.
One classification call moves the numbers, so here it is. Teck is counted as copper-first because its copper segment was 61.5% of 2025 revenue in its annual SEC filing, with zinc most of the rest. Moving Teck to diversified would cut the copper share of every fund that holds it, and raise the fee per $100 of copper to $1.06 for COPX and $0.79 for COPP. The full list of judgment calls is in the sources note below.
From each issuer's fund page, holdings file, prospectus and SEC filings
Which copper ETF holds what, and how does each one pick its stocks?
| Fund | Expense ratio | Holdings | Assets | Index | Largest positions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Global X Copper Miners (COPX) | 0.65% | 40 | $6.67 billion | Solactive copper miners index, roughly equal sized positions | Teck 5.7%, Southern Copper 5.6%, BHP 5.6%, Hudbay 5.5%, Freeport-McMoRan 5.3% |
| Sprott Copper Miners (COPP) | 0.65% | 79 | $246 million | Nasdaq Sprott copper miners index, plus a physical copper trust | Freeport-McMoRan 25.0%, Teck 10.5%, Antofagasta 7.7%, Sprott Physical Copper Trust 5.5%, Southern Copper 5.1% |
| Sprott Junior Copper Miners (COPJ) | 0.75% | 68 | $135 million | Small and mid sized copper miners, developers and explorers | Minsur 5.5%, Ero Copper 4.8%, Trekor Metals (formerly Taseko) 4.7%, Atalaya 4.3%, Ivanhoe Electric 4.2% |
| iShares Copper and Metals Mining (ICOP) | 0.47% | 45 | $429 million (June 30) | STOXX copper and metals mining index | BHP 8.2%, Anglo American 8.1%, Grupo Mexico 8.0%, Freeport-McMoRan 7.9%, Teck 5.4% (June 30 filing) |
| Themes Copper Miners (COPA) | 0.35% | 49 | $11.6 million | BITA global copper mining select index | Freeport-McMoRan 9.4%, Glencore 5.4%, BHP 4.5%, Anglo American 4.2%, Teck 3.7% |
COPX is the only one of the five with real size and trading volume. ICOP holds a few hundred million, COPP and COPJ hold a few hundred million between them, and COPA, the cheapest at 0.35%, held $11.6 million. Small funds close, and a closure forces a sale on the fund's date rather than yours, which can mean a taxable gain at a bad time. COPA also holds 14.1% in companies that are neither copper miners nor diversified miners, including a Chinese copper foil maker at 3.1%, and 15.3% in China-controlled companies, close to COPX's 14.7%. COPP and COPJ hold almost none.
The ICOP figures come from an SEC filing dated June 30 because the iShares website could not be read for this comparison, so treat that row as the shape of the fund rather than today's exact weights. If what you want is the copper price itself, none of these is it. Miners carry costs, debt, mine-specific risk and often gold or molybdenum by-products, and they typically move more than the metal in both directions. The United States Copper Index Fund (CPER) holds COMEX copper futures instead, with a 0.65% management fee and about 0.78% in total expenses for the first half of 2026, and it issues a Schedule K-1 rather than a 1099.
// The universe, six groups
Which stocks belong in a copper miners stocks index?
Copper companies earn from different things. Large producers such as Freeport-McMoRan and Southern Copper run giant mines for decades and earn the copper price minus their costs, often with gold or molybdenum on the side. Mid sized producers such as Hudbay and Ero Copper have fewer mines, so one operating problem matters more. Developers such as Ivanhoe Electric are building mines and trade on drilling results, permits and financing. The share you give each group decides what your index actually rides on.
1
Large copper producers
2
Mid sized copper producers
3
Copper developers
4
Diversified miners with big copper units (optional)
5
Physical copper (optional sleeve)
6
A copper miner fund as one line (optional)
That second chart is the first decision. How much of your copper bet do you want in Freeport-McMoRan, the largest US copper producer? COPP says a quarter, COPX says about a twentieth, COPJ says none. Neither answer is wrong, but it should be yours. The other decision is where you can buy. Much of the copper industry is listed outside New York: First Quantum, Lundin Mining and Capstone in Toronto, Antofagasta and Glencore in London, KGHM in Warsaw, Zijin and Jiangxi Copper in Hong Kong, Sandfire in Sydney. A basket of US listings can hold Freeport, Southern Copper, Teck, Hudbay, Ero Copper and Ivanhoe Electric, plus BHP, Rio Tinto and Vale if you want the majors, which covers the largest producers in the Americas. It cannot hold the London, Toronto-only and Asian miners directly. Decide whether you want that gap, or add COPX or COPJ to your index as a single line to fill it.
The S&P 500 overlap is close to zero, which is the reason to own the theme next to a core index at all. Freeport-McMoRan is the only copper company in the S&P 500, at 0.15% of it on October 21. Southern Copper, a top five holding in COPX, COPP and ICOP, is not in the index. Weighting is the next decision. Developers are small and swing hard, so many people cap each name at 5% to 10%, or use an equal weight index across the producers and keep the developers as a smaller sleeve.
From a view on copper demand to a basket you can buy
How to build your own copper miners stocks index in four steps
1
Decide what counts
Producers only, or developers too? BHP, Rio Tinto and gold-heavy miners in or out? Those choices are most of the gap between COPJ and ICOP.
2
Fill the groups
Search the catalog of US-listed stocks, add the producers and developers you want, and set equal, size or your own weights with a cap on Freeport.
3
Backtest against the funds
Run it against the S&P 500, and build a one-line index of COPX to put the biggest copper fund, with history back to 2010, on the same chart.
4
Track it, then buy it
Follow the index daily against its benchmark, export the weights, and place the basket at your own broker when you are ready.
Copper miners are a cyclical business, which makes a backtest more useful here than in most themes. COPX dates from 2010, so a basket can be run through the long slide after the 2011 commodity peak, the 2015 to 2016 bust, the 2020 to 2021 recovery and the swings since. Freeport, Southern Copper and Teck have decades of price history, while several developers have only a few years, so test the producers over the full window and the developers over the short one, and read the maximum drawdown before the return. Backtests are hypothetical and past returns do not predict future ones. If you cap the largest names, test a quarterly reset with the custom index rebalancing tool.
Three ways to own copper miners, compared honestly
Build your own copper index vs a copper ETF vs a basket broker
| Copper miner ETF | Fidelity Basket Portfolios | Indexes, then your broker | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who decides what counts as copper | The fund's index | You | You, and you can test it first |
| Yearly cost | 0.35% to 0.75% of the balance | $4.99 a month flat | From $24 a month for the software, billed yearly, plus your broker's cost |
| History you can test | Since 2010 for COPX | None | As far back as your youngest stock goes |
| Toronto, London and Asian miners | Yes, in every fund | US listings only | US listings, plus any fund you add as one line |
| Per-stock tax losses | No | Yes, done by you | Yes, at your broker |
| Where it falls short | You take the fund's answer on BHP, gold and Freeport | No way to test a design before buying | You place and rebalance the trades yourself |
The ETF wins when you want one ticker, the Toronto, London and Asian miners you cannot buy in New York, and no upkeep. If that is the choice, measure the fee against what you are buying, not against the label. Per $100 of copper-first miners, COPA cost $0.55 a year, COPP $0.70, COPJ $0.77 and ICOP $0.81, against $0.97 for COPX, because a third of COPX is something else. That is our arithmetic, the expense ratio divided by the copper-first share, and we rank all five that way in best copper ETF ranked by fee.
Building your own pays off on cost once the balance is large enough that a flat $288 a year for the software beats the fund fee, about $44,000 against COPX or COPP and $38,000 against COPJ, and whenever the mix you want is one no fund offers, such as the Americas producers with Freeport capped at 10% and no gold miners. Owning the shares has a tax side too. Miners fall hard on a strike, a mine accident or a guidance cut while the rest of the group holds, and that one name can be sold for a tax loss while the basket stays in place, which a fund does not allow. Check the dates with the wash sale calculator before you buy the same stock back.
What Indexes does and does not do: it is index construction, backtesting and tracking software. It does not hold money, place trades or give investment advice. You design and test the copper miners stocks index here and hold it wherever you already invest.
Copper ETF questions
What people ask before they buy copper stocks
What is the best copper ETF?
For copper miners, Sprott's COPP and COPJ hold the most copper: 93.0% and 97.7% in companies where copper is the main business on October 22, 2026. Global X's COPX, the largest fund at $6.67 billion, was 67.1%, with 25.9% in diversified majors such as BHP and Glencore. For the metal itself rather than miners, CPER holds copper futures.
Does Vanguard have a copper ETF?
No. Vanguard sells no copper or copper miner ETF, and neither do Schwab or Fidelity; an SEC filing search and a web search on October 23, 2026 found none. A Vanguard, Schwab or Fidelity customer can buy COPX, COPP, COPJ, ICOP or CPER at their own broker, or buy the US-listed copper stocks directly and pay no expense ratio.
What does COPX hold?
On October 22, 2026, COPX held 40 stocks in roughly equal sized positions: Teck 5.7%, Southern Copper 5.6%, BHP 5.6%, Hudbay 5.5%, Freeport-McMoRan 5.3%, Glencore 5.3%, First Quantum 4.8%, KGHM 4.7%, Boliden 4.5% and Antofagasta 4.4%. Copper-first miners were 67.1% of the fund and China-controlled companies 14.7%.
COPX vs COPP, which is better?
They charge the same 0.65%, but COPP holds more copper: 93.0% copper-first miners against 67.1% for COPX. COPP is far more concentrated, with Freeport-McMoRan at 25.0% and its top ten at 74.9%, while COPX spreads 40 names and its top ten are 51.2%. The two overlap by 55.3%. COPX is 27 times larger.
COPX vs ICOP, what is the difference?
ICOP is cheaper at 0.47% against 0.65%, but in its June 30, 2026 filing it held 12.1% in gold miners and 28.9% in diversified majors such as BHP, Anglo American and Rio Tinto, leaving 58.1% in copper-first miners. COPX was 67.1% copper-first. Per $100 of copper-first miners, ICOP cost $0.81 a year and COPX $0.97.
Is there a copper ETF that holds the metal?
Yes. The United States Copper Index Fund (CPER) holds COMEX copper futures, not stocks. Its management fee is 0.65% and its expenses for the first half of 2026 ran about 0.78% a year in total, from its SEC quarterly report. Futures track the copper price more directly but carry roll costs, and CPER issues a Schedule K-1 at tax time.
What is the cheapest copper ETF?
Themes Copper Miners (COPA) is the cheapest at 0.35%, then ICOP at 0.47%, COPX and COPP at 0.65% and COPJ at 0.75%. COPA is tiny, $11.6 million in assets, which raises closure risk. Per $100 of copper-first miners it still costs least at $0.55 a year, ahead of COPP at $0.70 and COPX at $0.97.
Can I build my own copper stock index?
Yes. Pick the US-listed copper producers and developers you want, such as Freeport-McMoRan, Southern Copper, Teck, Hudbay, Ero Copper and Ivanhoe Electric, decide whether BHP and Rio Tinto belong, set the weights with a cap, and backtest the basket against COPX and the S&P 500. Then buy the shares at your broker, with no expense ratio.
Sources
Holdings, fees and assets from each issuer's fund page and holdings file for October 22, 2026: globalxetfs.com (COPX), sprottetfs.com (COPP and COPJ) and themesetfs.com (COPA), and ssga.com (SPY) for October 21, 2026. The iShares website could not be read, so ICOP holdings are from its SEC Form N-PORT for June 30, 2026 and its fee from its July 31, 2026 summary prospectus; its weights as filed add up to 101.7% because of securities lending collateral, which we left out of the bar. CPER's fee and expenses from its quarterly report for the period ended June 30, 2026. Teck's segment revenue from its 2025 annual report filed with the SEC. China-controlled is our own tag for companies headquartered in or controlled from mainland China or Hong Kong. The groups are our own classification of each holding by its main business, and several are judgment calls: Teck, Aurubis (a copper smelter and recycler, counted as copper) and Minsur and Grupo Mexico (counted as copper) on one side, Zijin and Sumitomo Metal Mining (counted as diversified) and China Gold International (counted as gold) on the other. Removing every borderline name from the copper group lowers it to 58.7% for COPX, 78.4% for COPP, 84.2% for COPJ, 43.4% for ICOP and 56.3% for COPA. Holdings and fees change, so confirm them on the fund page before you buy. Indexes is not affiliated with any fund issuer or broker named here. We make index construction and backtesting software: we do not manage money, place trades or give investment advice, and backtested results are hypothetical.
Build the copper index you actually meant to buy
Choose the copper producers and developers and the weights, backtest the basket against COPX and the S&P 500, and track it every day. Then buy it wherever you invest.
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