World’s 50 biggest mining companies shed $228 billion in Q2

At the end of the second quarter, the MINING.COM TOP 50* ranking of the world’s most valuable miners had a combined market capitalisation of $2.19 trillion, down $228 billion over the three months and hanging on to a gain of just $22 billion so far in 2026. After a first quarter in which the ranking powered through the outbreak of the US-Iran war to touch $2.41 trillion, the June quarter handed nearly all of those gains back.

Gold entered the quarter within sight of its late-January record of $5,589 an ounce and exited it fighting to hold $4,000, falling through the psychological level in the final week of June. The rally that looked gravity-defying in January has given way to a full-blown retreat, and even the biggest bulls on Wall Street spent June trimming their targets.

For the precious metals contingent, still 17 companies strong and more than a quarter of the index’s overall value – the damage was uniform and ugly. Agnico Eagle, which entered the rarified atmosphere of the triple-digit billions in January, gave back $28 billion or 26% of its value, over the three months.

Kinross shed a similar proportion, Gold Fields lost 28%, and Shandong Gold was cut down by 40% – a 16-place fall to number 46 that counts among the steepest quarterly drops in the history of the ranking. Not even the royalty and streaming trio of Wheaton, Franco-Nevada and Royal Gold (often a place to hide when bullion wobbles) offered shelter, declining 18%–23%.

The exception was Newmont. The world’s number one gold miner fell a comparatively modest 16% and vaulted over Zijin Mining into fourth place overall. The explanation is rather pedestrian: Denver never ran as hot as its rivals on bullion’s way up, so it had less froth to give back – down 7.5% for the year versus double-digit losses across the gold patch. In other news, Newmont’s Red Chris mine in British Columbia received the regulatory okay for its expansion in June