Investing in Metals ETFs

Metals are crucial to our economy. Industrial base metals such as copper, iron ore, and aluminum are essential building blocks for infrastructure, buildings, appliances, vehicles, and other equipment. Many metals are also becoming crucial for lower-carbon energy. Meanwhile, precious metals like gold and silver have industrial uses and are important for investors. These demand drivers should help boost metals prices in the future.  

Investors have several metals and metal-related investment opportunities that could help them to profit from rising metals demand and prices. Of those options, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offer an easy way to broadly invest in the metals sector. Here's a closer look at some of the leading metals-focused ETFs.

There are lots of ETFs focused on the metals and mining sector. Several ETFs focus on precious metals, including gold ETFs and silver ETFs. They provide investors with broad exposure to the precious metals mining sector or a specific precious metal.

Likewise, several ETFs concentrate on leading industrial base metals such as aluminum, iron ore, and copper, plus emerging metals for the green energy sector such as lithium. Their strategies center on holding metals-focused mining stocks or metals futures contracts.