Mineral Resources (MinRes) is eyeing opportunities in copper and expanding beyond Australia after reporting record financial results for fiscal 2026 driven by its Onslow Iron project and a second-half recovery in lithium markets.
The Western Australian-based miner delivered a 44 per cent increase in annual revenue to AU$6.5 billion, while underlying earnings surged 183 per cent to AU$2.6 billion, achieving a record margin of 39 per cent.
Underlying net profit after tax (NPAT) jumped 831 per cent to AU$822 million, allowing the board to declare a fully franked full-year dividend of 83 cents per share.
The robust performance was spearheaded by Onslow Iron, which reached its nameplate capacity of 35 million tonnes per annum in August 2025.
The operation contributed AU$909 million in underlying earnings, with the arrival of additional transhippers pushing total installed capacity toward 40 million tonnes per annum.
Looking beyond iron, MinRes is considering opportunities in the copper market as it looks for its next phase of growth.
“We are fairly keen on moving down the path of doing a copper project next,” CEO Chris Ellison said during a results call with investors.
“If something really attractive comes along, we’d look at it. But we are really focused on copper as our next commodity, and we really don’t want to grow too much more in the lithium and iron ore space.
“We’re more interested in partnering with an owner that’s got say a copper project somewhere in the world and it would be probably near shovel-ready, and they would probably be looking for the sort of skill set that we have along with our design engineering build capability.”
The company’s mining services division also achieved record earnings, with underlying earnings rising to AU$689 million on the back of expanded production volumes and new contract wins.
Meanwhile, lithium operations generated AU$771 million in underlying earnings across the Wodgina and Mt Marion assets as operational efficiencies aligned with improving commodity prices.
MinRes strengthened its balance sheet during the period, cutting net debt by AU$1.1 billion to AU$4.3 billion while expanding total liquidity to AU$2.4 billion.
“Our priorities for FY27 are to achieve guidance across all divisions, execute low-risk, high-returns brownfield investments, continue to strengthen the balance sheet and ensure MinRes is positioned for our next phase of growth within our significantly improved governance frameworks and capital allocation model,” Ellison said.
