World’s top 50 mining companies end 2022 rock solid but Chinese stocks slide down the rankings despite surging coal and lithium prices, and Russian miners trading in Moscow finally succumb.
Collectively, the world’s biggest mining companies are now worth $1.39 trillion, just a shade below the combined market cap at the end of 2021. That compares to a 9% drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and a nearly 20% decline in the S&P500. The Swiss giant is benefitting from a strategy not to ditch coal like its peers – despite growing pressure – and a trading arm making the most of sky high prices for energy.
SQM, the world’s number two producer of the battery raw material gained 10 spots and 60% in value last year. Santiago-based SQM is the second best performer after Saudi Arabia’s Ma’aden, a rapidly growing precious and base metal miner and a beneficiary of the kingdom’s push to diversify its economy.
Norilsk Nickel, thanks to captive investors on the MCX, is still worth north of $30 billion but its relative weakness to its peers saw it drop out of the top 10 for the first time. The PGM, nickel and copper producer had been the fifth most valuable company at end-June. For instance, should smelter companies or commodity traders that own minority stakes in mining assets be included, especially if these investments have no operational component or warrant a seat on the board?