What Is URNJ? Sprott Junior Uranium Miners ETF

URNJ is the Sprott Junior Uranium Miners ETF, a fund that targets the small, mid, and micro-cap end of the uranium mining industry. It tracks the Nasdaq Sprott Junior Uranium Miners Index and holds roughly 35 to 40 developers and emerging producers, deliberately excluding the largest producers and physical uranium held by its sister fund URNM.

Launched in February 2023 by Sprott Asset Management, URNJ gives investors a way to concentrate on the higher-beta, exploration-heavy part of the uranium market. Its 0.80% expense ratio is standard for a specialized small-cap sector product, and its junior tilt makes it one of the most aggressive listed ways to bet on rising uranium prices.

Approximate weights as of mid-2026; refresh quarterly from Sprott Asset Management's fund page. Each ticker links to its individual stock guide in Walnut.

URNJ is led by developers and emerging producers such as Denison Mines, NexGen Energy, Energy Fuels, and Paladin Energy, followed by names like Deep Yellow, Boss Energy, Uranium Energy, Peninsula Energy, Bannerman Energy, and Lotus Resources. The top ten positions account for close to 80% of the fund.

Because the index screens out the biggest producers and physical uranium, the portfolio skews toward companies that are still building or ramping projects. That gives URNJ more torque to a rising uranium price than a producer-heavy fund, but it also concentrates the fund in businesses with greater financing, permitting, and execution risk.

The core distinction is scale and stage. URNM is the broad, producer-weighted uranium fund, dominated by large miners like Cameco and Kazatomprom plus a physical uranium stake. URNJ deliberately excludes those names to focus on juniors, making it higher-beta and more speculative within an already volatile sector.

In practice, URNJ tends to rise more sharply than URNM when uranium sentiment is strong and fall harder when it weakens, because small developers amplify moves in the commodity. Investors choosing between them are effectively deciding how much company-specific and stage-of-development risk they want on top of uranium-price exposure.

URNJ's returns are driven by the uranium price and, even more, by the fortunes of its junior holdings, which can be repriced quickly on drilling results, permitting news, and financing. The fund has experienced powerful rallies and steep drawdowns, so its short history has been notably volatile.

The bullish case rests on structural uranium supply deficits and rising nuclear demand pulling new projects into production, which would benefit the developers URNJ owns. The bearish case includes demand disappointments, delays, dilution, and policy shifts, meaning outcomes are uncertain and highly sensitive to the uranium cycle.

Walnut is not an investment adviser, and whether URNJ fits depends on your goals, time horizon, and tolerance for risk. URNJ is a concentrated, high-beta fund of speculative junior miners, so it can move much more sharply than a diversified core holding or even the broader URNM.

Investors who want aggressive uranium exposure sometimes hold URNJ as a small satellite position sized so that a large drawdown will not derail their plan. If you prefer diversification, lower volatility, or steadier income, a broad-market fund or the more producer-heavy URNM may suit you better.

URNJ trades on the Nasdaq and can be purchased through most major brokerages, including Robinhood, Fidelity, Schwab, and Public. Many of these platforms support fractional shares, so you can take a partial-share position if a full share is more than you want to commit to a speculative sector bet.

You can also connect your brokerage account to Walnut to track URNJ alongside your other holdings, see how it fits your target weights, and build baskets around a uranium or broader energy theme. Walnut helps you monitor the position; the trade itself is always placed and settled at your own broker.

ETFs are passive bundles; thematic baskets in Walnut let you concentrate within them. If you hold URNJ as a core position, these are the themes you might layer on as satellites.

URNJ is the higher-octane uranium fund, tilting to junior miners and developers for more upside and more risk than URNM at a 0.80% fee. It is a speculative, concentrated sector bet best held as a small satellite position by investors comfortable with sharp swings.

Whether URNJ is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, concentration, and what would have to be true for it to outperform from here in is URNJ a buy?

URNJ yields ~3% as of mid-2026, paid by passing through the dividends of its underlying holdings. For the payout schedule, history, and how the distributions are taxed, see URNJ dividend: yield and schedule.