Mineral Resources Limited

ASX:MIN

Mineral Resources Limited

ASX:MIN
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$50.15 (+4.6%)
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#57
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12
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Reports (5) My Report Forum Investors
Forum Topics MIN MIN AusSuper stake

Pinned straw:
Rocket6
Added 4 weeks ago

From this AFR today (link here):

'The nation’s biggest superannuation fund, AustralianSuper, is once again a substantial shareholder of Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources, advising the market it now owned more than 5 per cent of the company after selling down its shares last year.

“Since the new chair started in May there has been improved governance, more rigorous capital allocation processes and increased disclosure,” AustralianSuper said in a statement.'

I am a MIN bull, but what a load of fluff. The company lost all three members of its ethics committee within a few months (established to, as the name suggests, keep CE in line), and also onboarded a Chairman with no mining experience that would presumably continue to act as a puppet for CE. There has been no real visible improvement in that regard since AusSuper left the building (with the exception of some positive Onslow updates, a stable IO price and rising lithium prices, of course). This to me (I allege) has nothing to do with ethics and all to do with an improved operating environment for MIN -- particularly noting next quarter, should prices remain as they are, they will likely spit out plenty of cash and repay some debt. Or am I being too cynical?!
Bear77
Added 4 weeks ago

No - I don't think you're being too cynical @Rocket6 - except I reckon that it's more a bit of both - but more about less headwinds for MIN now - even though the danger of a lower iron ore price over the next few years remains very real - see this for some excellent history and future production projections of Simandou and other African iron ore projects: https://www.afr.com/interactive-freeview/2025/african-iron-ore/ - It's free to access, but I have put it all in a straw here today: #Simandou Impact on WA Iron Ore for Fortescue Ltd - looks like you have to scroll past my very long "Val" for FMG to get to that straw, or you can access it from here also - I put it all in a straw in case the AFR decide to put it behind a paywall later. It certainly seemed to be free to the public today so I regard it as being in the public domain.

I agree with you that Chris Ellison is far from "reigned in" by improved governance from a stronger Board; If anything he now has even more control and less people prepared to cross him in the Boardroom. Perhaps AustralianSuper is hoping that Chris has decided all by himself to pull his head in and not do anything stupid in the near to mid term that is going to drag the poor-corporate-behaviour spotlight back onto him and MinRes - he's surely rich enough already, and it's in his own interests for the MIN SP to continue to recover - so his stake in the company will be worth more. He might also be concerned about his legacy - and will want to go out on a high rather than another low, although probably not any time soon.

I'm still not interested in buying back into MIN myself because my reasons for exiting all remain; the situation there hasn't improved, only the share price has improved, and the Onslow Haul Road trucking data (tonnes moved per month) has certainly exceeded my expectations. But there's still plenty of risks there IMO.

The AustralianSuper U-turn on MIN is surprising, but likely proves that it wasn't all about an "ethical" viewpoint on their part, but rather more about using that as an excuse to cut their losses, as they saw it at the time, as you suggest @Rocket6 - and they've ended up losing substantial money as a result considering they sold out at lower levels and bought back at significantly higher ones.

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