Global X launches Article 8 gold miners UCITS ETF with 0.55% fee

Global X ETFs Europe announced the Global X Responsible Gold Miners UCITS ETF (GLDX), an Article 8 SFDR strategy with a 0.55% total expense ratio. The fund tracks the MerQube Responsible Gold Miners Index, and the launch was reported on 15 October.

Global X says the ETF will list on the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse Xetra, with listings on Borsa Italiana and SIX Swiss Exchange expected shortly. The announcement does not give a first trading date for any of the four venues.

The MerQube index applies sustainability screens and adjusts constituent weights using criteria defined within its responsible mining framework. Global X describes GLDX as seeking gold-mining equity exposure through a framework that incorporates sustainability screens, environmental impact metrics and selected social and governance indicators to identify responsible miners.

George Taylor, co-head and chief operating officer at Global X ETFs Europe, said responsible mining is "becoming an increasingly important part of the investment case for gold miners," and pointed to environmental management, worker safety, governance and community relationships as factors that "can help companies manage risk and strengthen operational resilience."

Zack Bezuidenhoudt, head of sales for EMEA and APAC at MerQube, said the partnership is intended to provide "scalable, liquid access to responsible gold-mining through an ETF wrapper."

The 0.55% fee is published with the launch, alongside the index name and the Article 8 classification. Several European launches this publication covered in September put actively managed strategies in front of intermediaries with expense ratios undisclosed, and the fee page arrived after the ticker.