New Additions to Aussie Mine Report Come in Hot

With the release of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) 12th annual Aussie Mine report comes a rundown of the mid-tier 50 (MT50), which includes some new faces and impressive results.

The MT50 consists of the largest ASX mining companies that had market capitalizations of less than $5 billion as of June 30, 2018. While some companies found themselves on the list again from 2017’s rankings, others were able to catapult their way onto the list this year with huge growth.

For example, MT50 newcomer Tungsten Mining (ASX:TGN) knocked it out of the park in terms of gains, securing spot 38 with a market cap boost of 3,141 percent from 2017.

Other new additions to the list with big-time market-cap growth include Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ), up 642 percent to grab spot 48, Aurelia Metals (ASX:AMI), up 512 percent to rank number 33, and Global Geoscience (ASX:INR) (now called ioneer), which took spot 31 with a 223-percent boost.

According to the PwC report, the MT50 has outperformed the S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) over the last few years, with the list’s market cap rising 140 percent since 2015 — compared with the ASX 200’s 9-percent growth over that same timeframe.

The group’s market cap has shot up 53 percent to $58.7 billion since 2017, with gold, lithium and coal being the top drivers. Unsurprisingly, gold miners make up a third of the list and contribute the most top-line growth; total revenues for the MT50 were boosted 13 percent year-on-year to $21.99 billion.

The report also shows that despite 35 of the MT50 companies being in production, making up 86 percent of the list’s market cap, it was the explorers and developers that came out on top with average market-cap growth of 124 percent; that’s compared to 45 percent for the producers.

Meanwhile, PwC indicates that MT50 production companies are struggling with cost control, as changes in operating costs outweigh changes in production.

Copper and coal proved to be prime examples, with operating costs in copper up 26 percent while production remained stagnant, and coal’s operating costs rising 21 percent with production only boosting 10 percent.

The five top companies on the MT50 are as follows. Click here to see which others made the list:

• Iluka Resources (ASX:ILU)
• AngloGold Ashanti (ASX:AGG)
• Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST)
• Independence Group (ASX:IGO)
• OZ Minerals (ASX:OZL)

You can also click here to see our list of the top Australian mining stocks by overall market cap.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Olivia Da Silva, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.