Mining stocks hammered as Iran war escalates: risk signals for project teams
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on MINING.com
30 Second Briefing
Mining equities sold off sharply as the Iran–US conflict escalated, with gold futures briefly nearing $5,000/oz before closing down 3.5% and silver trading around $83/oz, still 6% lower on the day, while copper slipped 2% to $5.83/lb. Newmont, Barrick and AngloGold Ashanti fell 7.9%, 8.3% and 10.4% respectively, Gold Fields dropped 11.6%, and platinum-focused Valterra Platinum slid 13.6% after intraday platinum price falls of up to 10%. Diversified and copper majors fared slightly better, with BHP down 5.6%, Southern Copper 5.8%, Rio Tinto 4.3% and Glencore only 2.1% helped by trading roughly 4 million boe/day of oil.
Technical Brief
- Newmont and Barrick traded heavily, with 14 million and 23 million shares changing hands respectively.
- Market capitalisations post-selloff: Newmont $129bn, Barrick $78bn, AngloGold Ashanti $58bn, Gold Fields $45bn.
- Wheaton Precious Metals closed at $68.7bn market cap versus Franco-Nevada at $50bn after smaller losses.
- Silver-focused names: Fresnillo’s US units dropped to $38.3bn, Pan American Silver to $26bn capitalisation.
- Valterra Platinum ended at a $25bn valuation after intraday platinum lows just above $2,000/oz.
- BHP retained a $200bn-plus valuation, the only mining stock ever to reach that threshold.
Our Take
Many of the large-cap gold and copper names hit here – Newmont, Barrick, Teck Resources and TSX-listed peers – also feature heavily in our TSX/TSXV coverage of outsized 2025 equity gains, so this drawdown is coming off a base where several miners had already doubled or more year-on-year.
With copper still around $5.83/lb despite a 2% daily drop, operators like Freeport-McMoRan, Southern Copper and Antofagasta remain in a price environment that, in our database, has been underpinning aggressive growth and M&A plans rather than cutbacks, suggesting this sell-off is more sentiment-driven than fundamentals-led for copper-heavy portfolios.
The fact that diversified traders such as Glencore, with roughly 4 million boe/d of oil-equivalent trading, moved less than single-commodity producers in this rout reinforces a pattern in our recent coverage: integrated exposure to oil and gas has been cushioning volatility for some mining houses during geopolitical shocks centred on the Middle East.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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