The gold miners ETFs that returned most
Funds sold on one theme can hold different companies, so a year apart at the top and the bottom of this list is a difference in what they own rather than in the theme.
| # | Ticker | Fund | Total return, 1Y ↓ | vs the S&P 500 | Weight in S&P 500 companies | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SGDJ | Sprott Junior Gold Miners ETF | +29.1% | +11.8 pts | 0.0% | 0.50% |
| 2 | GBUG | Sprott Active Gold & Silver Miners ETF | +24.2% | +6.9 pts | 3.3% | 0.90% |
| 3 | SGDM | Sprott Gold Miners ETF | +23.9% | +6.6 pts | 7.6% | 0.46% |
| 4 | GOEX | Global X Gold Explorers ETF | +23.0% | +5.8 pts | 0.0% | 0.65% |
| 5 | RING | iShares MSCI Global Gold Miners ETF | +22.8% | +5.6 pts | 17.0% | 0.39% |
| 6 | GDX | VanEck Gold Miners ETF | +18.9% | +1.7 pts | 11.2% | 0.51% |
| 7 | GDXJ | VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF | +17.1% | −0.2 pts | 0.0% | 0.52% |
| 8 | AUMI | Themes Gold Miners ETF | +17.0% | −0.2 pts | 0.0% | 0.35% |
| 9 | GDMN | WisdomTree Efficient Gold Plus Gold Mine | +8.8% | −8.4 pts | 12.4% | 0.45% |
Method
The 9 of 10 ETFs in the gold miners theme with a full year of trading, highest first, each over the same year to Oct 9, 2026 with distributions reinvested. Across the funds listed here the one year total return runs from 8.8% to 29.1%.
The rest of the method
A year is a year. It says what happened and nothing about what happens next. The ranking is the published field sorted, nothing else: no scoring, no weighting and no view on any fund. Every fund ETFIQ covers in this category is eligible, including funds that have closed, because leaving them out would flatter the category.
ETFIQ links to the documents behind every figure; a link is not an endorsement. A ranking is not a recommendation and no order on this site is an opinion.
ETFIQ, The gold miners ETFs that returned most, ranked by total return with distributions reinvested, data as of Oct 9, 2026. https://etfiq.com/rankings/themes-best-year-gold
ETFIQ. (Oct 9, 2026). The gold miners ETFs that returned most, ranked by total return with distributions reinvested. Retrieved from https://etfiq.com/rankings/themes-best-year-gold
[The gold miners ETFs that returned most, ranked by total return with distributions reinvested (ETFIQ, Oct 9, 2026)](https://etfiq.com/rankings/themes-best-year-gold)
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