Top 50 mining companies reshuffle as Chinese, lithium firms climb rankings – by Frik Els (Mining.com – July 5, 2017)

http://www.mining.com/

After a banner 2016, the recovery in the mining sector slowed dramatically this year and in some instances fortunes reversed.

At the half-year mark, the world’s 50 largest listed firms are worth a collective $768 billion, adding nearly $12 billion in market capitalization to year-to-end June. The top 10 make up more than half the sector’s worth.

The vast majority of those gains were achieved last year – over the past 12 months the top 50 have added nearly $100 billion in combined value. A handful of gold companies are in the red so far this year, notably China’s Shandong Gold, Canada’s Goldcorp and Russia’s Polyus Gold, the world’s eighth largest gold miner.

Some of last year’s high flyers have also come back down to earth including Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group which have been declining alongside the iron ore price and Canada’s Teck Resources, hurt by a coking coal price that’s fallen back to earth.

Russian firms are not having a happy 2017 with the top five companies losing $9.5 billion year-to-date as falling nickel prices hurt Norilsk’s prospects and potash prices languishing near multi-year lows crimp Uralkali’s outlook.

For the rest of this article: http://www.mining.com/top-50-mining-companies-reshuffle-chinese-lithium-firms-climb-rankings/