Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The Sprott Active Metals & Miners ETF is listed on Nasdaq® under the symbol “METL.” Investors can purchase METL in a brokerage account or by contacting their financial advisor.

Sprott Active Metals & Miners ETF (Nasdaq: METL) offers investors active, value-driven exposure to the entire metals and mining lifecycle.

Given mining complexity and the cyclical nature of commodities, investors may benefit from a specialized, value-oriented perspective.

METL leverages Sprott’s four decades of sector expertise to build a dynamic, diversified portfolio positioned to benefit from global supply-demand imbalances, with the transparency and flexibility of an ETF.

The Fund’s investment strategy is value-oriented and contrarian.

The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing at least 80% of its net assets in companies that are involved in the mining, exploration, production, development, distribution or recycling of metals and raw materials required to support growing global energy demand and royalty and streaming companies engaged in financing such metals and raw materials.

The Fund seeks to provide exposure to various metals and raw materials such as aluminum, cobalt, copper, gold, graphite, iron ore, lithium and nickel, manganese, palladium, platinum, rare earth elements, silver, steel, uranium, and zinc.

The Fund is actively managed. Investment decisions are made by a team comprised of Justin Tolman, BSc (Hons) MBA, Senior Portfolio Manager and Economic Geologist; Maria Smirnova, MBA, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager & Chief Investment Officer; Shree Kargutkar, MBA, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager; and Victor Huwang, MBA, CRC, Director, U.S. Operations.

These professionals are members of the Sprott Investment Team, which offers demonstrated expertise in the active management of metals equities. Sprott Asset Management USA, Inc. is the investment adviser to the Sprott Active Metals & Miners ETF. ALPS Advisors, Inc. is the sub-adviser, and ALPS Fund Services, Inc. serves as the administrator. ALPS Distributors, Inc. is the Distributor for the Sprott Active Metals & Miners ETF and is a registered broker-dealer and FINRA Member. Additionally, State Street Bank and Trust Company serves as the custodian and transfer agent.

METL, an actively managed ETF investing in companies across the metals and mining industry lifecycle, including miners, recyclers, and royalty and streaming companies, aims to provide the following advantages:

• Stock selection based on our several decades of collective experience investing in miners with prospects of strong growth or takeover potential. The variability of individual company performance within the mining sector can be considerable, so stock picking can potentially add substantial value.
• The investment team has cultivated strong relationships within the mining sector. It conducts over 200 management meetings and up to 30 site visits annually. Key criteria for assessing management include familiarity, credibility, alignment of interests and the required skill sets for different development stages.
• The investment team assesses capital needs, timelines, financing strategies, detailed valuation metrics combined with dynamic modeling for sensitivity testing to multiple variables including prices, costs, tax regimes, royalty and streaming obligations, and debt obligations.

There is no guarantee these objectives will be met. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

The team follows a comprehensive and repeatable process, which marries top-down sector analysis with bottom-up stock selection.

Management

• Credibility: Focus on projects with management teams that have a demonstrated track record.
• Familiarity: Conduct >200 management meetings per year, including meetings with Boards of Directors.
• Governance and Alignment of Interests: Compensation that aligns management interests with shareholders.

Mines and Minerals

• Technical Analysis: Geology, size potential, mineralogy, infrastructure, land access.
• Scenario analysis: To determine technical feasibility and upside potential.
• Boots on the Ground: Up to 30 site visits per year.

Money

• Capital structure and funding requirement analysis.
• Analysis of potential free cash flow generation and net present value.
• Analysis of sensitivity to commodity prices.

Political Risk

• Sprott proprietary “Heat Map”: Ranking of mining jurisdictions from favorable to unacceptable.
• Ongoing monitoring of changing political risks and fiscal regimes.

ESG

• Manage ESG Considerations: The sector requires a thoughtful understanding of how ESG (environmental, social and governance) risks factor into appropriate discount rates as well as growth opportunities.

Other Factors

• Social: Community relations, human rights, diversity and inclusion, health and safety.
• Environmental: Sustainable investment, water management, renewable energy use, modern mining practices.

There is no guarantee that investment process objectives will be met. 

The Fund’s managers seek to invest using a fundamental research-based, value-oriented philosophy. They select companies they believe are undervalued, with good long-term business fundamentals and/or growth potential trading below their intrinsic value. In assessing intrinsic value, the portfolio managers’ judgments will be based on a comparison of a company’s stock market value with various financial parameters, including historical and projected cash flow, book earnings, and net asset value (“NAV”). Underlying asset quality and management competence and track record are also important variables.

There are three macro drivers of investment opportunity in metals and mining: 1) Energy growth, 2) energy security and 3) the global energy transition.

Energy demand is growing.

Electricity demand is estimated to increase by 169% by 2050, according to the IEA World Energy Outlook 2024 (Net-Zero Emissions Scenario).

• Evolving energy systems require more electricity, which depends on critical materials.
• Surging Energy Consumption in the East: Driven by energy security and the urbanization and industrialization of developing countries.
• Surging Energy Consumption in the West: Driven by artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, electrification and reshoring.
• Electrification: A greater focus on decarbonization.

Energy and mineral security is now paramount.

• Minerals underpin a country’s core functions, including energy production, infrastructure development and defense. Ensuring supply safeguards national interests and supports economic resilience.

• Energy and mineral security is now paramount. Nations are accelerating the construction of diversified energy systems, friendshoring, regulating and building strategic reserves. All to insulate themselves from supply disruption risks such as geopolitical disputes, market manipulation and resource nationalism.

• Growth sectors such as electrification and new technologies rely heavily on a stable mineral supply.

• Supply security can be critical for minerals essential to national defense, including antimony (Sb) and tungsten (W).

The global energy transition is underway.

• 107 parties, representing 108 countries and 81.7% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), have communicated a net-zero target.

• The energy transition involves transportation. EVs and its associated infrastructure require significant quantities of critical materials.

The Sprott Active Metals & Miners ETF expects to declare and distribute all its net investment income, if any, to shareholders as dividends at least annually and on a pro-rata basis. The Fund may distribute such income dividends and capital gains more frequently, if necessary, to reduce or eliminate federal excise or income taxes on the Fund.

Please reach out to your Sprott representative at 888.622.1813 or or invest@sprott.com for additional questions.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. You cannot invest directly in an index.