SYDNEY, June 27, 2026, 06:02 (AEST)
- Mineral Resources Limited ASX:MIN closed at A$63.14 on Friday, slipping 1.56%. Shares lost 10.78% for the week. Intelligent Investor
- Lucky Bay is set to enter care and maintenance on July 1. Roughly 110 jobs hit. The company expects to book a non-cash impairment of about A$40 million in FY26 results.
- Shares have dropped close to A$540 million in market value since the Lucky Bay news, or around 13.5 times the expected writedown, using Google Finance’s 198.54 million shares out. Google
- ASX cash equities did not trade at the dateline. The most recent local price is from Friday’s close. TradingHours
ASX cash equities hadn’t opened at press time, so Mineral Resources Limited ASX:MIN remains at Friday’s close. Shares last finished at A$63.14, off A$1.00 for the session. Market cap sits near A$12.48 billion. Intelligent Investor
MinRes is taking a roughly A$40 million non-cash writedown on Lucky Bay, but shares have dropped a lot more. After the company posted the update at 8:13 a.m. Thursday, the stock slid from A$65.86 to A$63.14. The market value lost is about A$540 million, according to Google Finance’s share count. Intelligent Investor
That’s a steep write-down on a garnet mine that wasn’t key to the main lithium, iron ore and mining services push. The market isn’t chalking up Lucky Bay as just a single hit—it looks more like a test case for cost discipline and how cleanly capital is managed.
MinRes said Lucky Bay’s results dropped after Middle East conflict hurt a key sales region. The company flagged rising diesel and shipping costs, adding the site south of Kalbarri, Western Australia, will stop running and go into care and maintenance starting July 1.
MinRes plans to cut about 110 jobs, though it said some workers could move to other roles if possible. The company said it’s looking at all options for the asset, including a sale.
Tough timing for MinRes. The company bought Lucky Bay in September 2025 from Resource Development Group Limited’s administrators in an asset and share deal. Now, under a year later, MinRes is shelving the operation and taking a write-down on the asset.
MinRes shares slid 8.69% from the Chair Update on Monday through Friday’s finish, dropping around A$1.19 billion in market value. The pressure started before the garnet update hit. Intelligent Investor
BHP Group Limited ASX:BHP gained 0.80% and Fortescue Ltd ASX:FMG was up 0.69% Friday, while MinRes didn’t follow the iron-ore names higher. Lithium stocks fell. PLS Group Ltd ASX:PLS dropped 6.32%, and Liontown Resources Limited ASX:LTR slipped 5.68%. Google
MinRes is still trading on its lithium recovery story as well as iron ore and services. Back in May, it signed off on a A$490 million expansion at Mt Marion with Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Group Co Ltd (SHE:002460). The project covers both a flotation plant and underground mining. “This high-return brownfield investment sets up Mt Marion for decades to come,” Managing Director Chris Ellison said. Mineral Resources
The update put Mt Marion’s payback at under a year, based on a spot spodumene price of around US$2,700 per tonne for SC6. That is the upside scenario. Lucky Bay is different—smaller, outside the core, and faces shipping and fuel exposure. Mineral Resources
MinRes shares remain much higher than last year’s bottom, trading at A$63.14—Intelligent Investor puts that 197.55% above the 52-week low. The stock is still down 15.05% from its June 1 high at A$74.33. Intelligent Investor
July 1 is the first key date next week, with Lucky Bay heading into care and maintenance. MinRes’s next set of scheduled updates come with the July 29 quarterly and Aug. 27 preliminary reports. The company has said it will detail the financial effects of closing then.
