Copper ended 2025 with a strong rally that’s persisting into the first month of the new year. Jacob White, Sprott Asset Management Director of ETF Product Management, highlighted the fundamental drivers that could help push copper to greater heights this year in the latest Sprott Copper Report.
2025 was a year marked by investment themes surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), and copper has been a beneficiary of that investor interest. As companies make heavy capital expenditures on building out AI infrastructure, the need for copper will likely rise as electricity demand increases.
“Copper rose 43.93% in 2025, capping a strong year that reshaped market expectations for both price and the supply-demand balance,” White noted in the copper report. “Copper’s strength has carried into early 2026, with the copper price continuing to attain all-time highs.”
As white noted, supply disruptions are forcing market tightness as well as stress and scarcity in mined copper. Additionally, persisting tariff risks, a weakening dollar, shifting demand to strategic, less price-sensitive uses, and other critical catalysts are all creating a backdrop for further bullishness in the red metal.
Furthermore, copper’s rise hasn’t been a recent phenomenon. White pointed out that physical copper and related stocks have been on a multi-year outperformance streak compared to other commodities.
How to Get Copper Exposure
With copper fundamentally positioned for potentially more upside, investors may want to carve out a sleeve for the red metal as part of their commodities allocation. With that, two funds worth considering are the Sprott Copper Miners ETF (COPP) and the Sprott Junior Copper Miners ETF (COPJ).
Per its fund description, COPP provides exposure to physical copper, which can provide closer tracking to the metal’s spot price. COPP also adds mining exposure by tracking the Nasdaq Sprott Copper Miners Index (NSCOPP). Its constituents include mostly large- and midcap companies domiciled across various countries. That adds to the fund’s potential diversification benefits and speaks to its pure-play exposure.
Small cap equities have growth potential in 2026, which makes COPJ an option to also consider. The fund allows investors the opportunity to combine small-cap growth and copper mining exposure in one fund. Per its fund description, COPJ tracks the Nasdaq Sprott Junior Copper Miner Index (NSCOPJ), which includes mid-, small- and microcap companies in copper-mining related businesses.
Bullishness is the outlook that rising prices will continue to rise.
NSCOPP is designed to track the performance of a selection of global securities in the copper industry, including copper producers, developers and explorers, and physical copper.
NSCOPJ is designed to track the performance of mid-, small- and micro-cap companies in copper-mining related businesses.
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Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs): SETM, LITP, URNM, URN, COPP, COPJ, NIKL, SGDM, SGDJ, SLVR, GBUG, METL
Physical Bullion Funds: PHYS, PSLV, CEF, and SPPP.
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