The Ontario Mine Rescue provincial competition hosted by Vale’s Creighton mine in Sudbury. Credit: Workplace Safety North
has hardly improved with both platinum and palladium drifting lower in 2024. Even iron ore prices back above $100 a tonne – the bread and butter of the diversified majors – was not enough for investors to jump back into the sector.at position 44 after dropping out at the end of last year following the closure of its Cobre Panama mine.
Pan American Silver, like its primary metall, could ride gold’s coattails to become the only silver-focused miner in the top 50 following Fresnillo’s exit more than a year ago. Silver is now the best performing metal year to date, up more than 18%.
The 10 Chinese companies in the ranking collectively are worth $192bn or 14% of the overall value, up from 8 companies valued at $115bn and 9% of three years ago. Three counters dropped out of the top 50 during the first quarter. Brazil’s CSN Mineração, an iron ore miner, China’s Huayou Cobalt and Australian lithium producer Pilbara Minerals.
As with any ranking, criteria for inclusion are contentious. We decided to exclude unlisted and state-owned enterprises at the outset due to a lack of information. That, of course, excludes giants like Chile’s Codelco, Uzbekistan’s Navoi Mining, which owns the world’s largest gold mine, Eurochem, a major potash firm, and a number of entities in China and developing countries around the world.