IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jrpoli/v86y2023ipas0301420723009285.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What drives shareholder returns in mining companies?

Author

Listed:
  • Gillis, Andrew
  • Steen, John
  • von Nordenflycht, Andrew
  • Dunbar, W Scott

Abstract

The mining industry has a long history of generating low shareholder returns. Over the past two decades, the average Canadian mining company has returned −8% per year, while the TSX composite index returned +7% per year. Prior studies indicate these low returns are driven primarily by volatile commodity prices and thus largely out of managers’ control. However, this research relies on small samples over short periods of time. To assess more robustly the distribution of shareholder returns across mining firms and to identify the relative impact of price versus other firm-specific factors on firm-level returns, we analyzed the performance of over 100 Canadian mining companies from 2003 to 2016. We find that commodity prices explained the majority of firm performance annually, but that over the long-run, mineral asset impairments had a much more significant influence on performance. Firms that significantly overperformed the industry experienced minimal impairments while firms that significantly underperformed experienced very large impairments. To deliver superior returns, it seems that mining firm managers and investors need to understand how to minimize impairments.

Suggested Citation

  • Gillis, Andrew & Steen, John & von Nordenflycht, Andrew & Dunbar, W Scott, 2023. "What drives shareholder returns in mining companies?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(PA).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:86:y:2023:i:pa:s0301420723009285
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2023.104217
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420723009285
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resourpol.2023.104217?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gabriel Hawawini & Venkat Subramanian & Paul Verdin, 2003. "Is performance driven by industry‐or firm‐specific factors? A new look at the evidence," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 1-16, January.
    2. Sinziana Dorobantu & Kate Odziemkowska, 2017. "Valuing Stakeholder Governance: Property Rights, Community Mobilization, and Firm Value," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(13), pages 2682-2703, December.
    3. Robert R. Wiggins & Timothy W. Ruefli, 2005. "Schumpeter's ghost: Is hypercompetition making the best of times shorter?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(10), pages 887-911, October.
    4. MacDiarmid, J. & Tholana, T. & Musingwini, C., 2018. "Analysis of key value drivers for major mining companies for the period 2006–2015," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 16-30.
    5. Crowson, P., 2001. "Mining industry profitability?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 33-42, March.
    6. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2006. "Profitability, investment and average returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(3), pages 491-518, December.
    7. Njowa, G. & Musingwini, C., 2018. "A framework for interfacing mineral asset valuation and financial reporting," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 3-15.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gillis, Andrew & Steen, John & Dunbar, W Scott & von Nordenflycht, Andrew, 2024. "What causes mining asset impairments?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gillis, Andrew & Steen, John & Dunbar, W Scott & von Nordenflycht, Andrew, 2024. "What causes mining asset impairments?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Karl-Heinz Leitner & Stefan Güldenberg, 2010. "Generic strategies and firm performance in SMEs: a longitudinal study of Austrian SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 169-189, September.
    3. Chang, Chia-Lin & Hsu, Hui-Kuang, 2013. "Modelling Volatility Size Effects for Firm Performance: The Impact of Chinese Tourists to Taiwan," MPRA Paper 45691, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Serban Mogos & Alex Davis & Rui Baptista, 2021. "High and sustainable growth: persistence, volatility, and survival of high growth firms," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(1), pages 135-161, March.
    5. Yi-Min Chen, 2008. "How Much Does Country Matter?," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 31(4), pages 404-435, October.
    6. von den Driesch, Till & Eva Susanne da Costa, Maika & Christina Flatten, Tessa & Brettel, Malte, 2015. "How CEO experience, personality, and network affect firms' dynamic capabilities," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 245-256.
    7. Andreas G. Koutoupis & Christos G. Kampouris & Athanasia V. Sakellaridou, 2022. "Can Financial Strength Indicators Form A Profitable Investment Strategy? The Case Of F-Score in Europe," Journal of Accounting and Management Information Systems, Faculty of Accounting and Management Information Systems, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 21(3), pages 355-372, September.
    8. Saul Estrin & Julia Korosteleva & Tomasz Mickiewicz, 2022. "Schumpeterian Entry: Innovation, Exporting, and Growth Aspirations of Entrepreneurs," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 46(2), pages 269-296, March.
    9. Berggrun, Luis & Cardona, Emilio & Lizarzaburu, Edmundo, 2020. "Firm profitability and expected stock returns: Evidence from Latin America," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    10. Sara Kelly Anzinger & Chinmoy Ghosh & Milena Petrova, 2017. "The Other Side of Value: The Effect of Quality on Price and Return in Real Estate," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 429-457, April.
    11. Boddewyn, Jean J. & Peng, Mike W., 2021. "Reciprocity and informal institutions in international market entry," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(1).
    12. Grobys, Klaus & Haga, Jesper, 2016. "Identifying portfolio-based systematic risk factors in equity markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 17(C), pages 88-92.
    13. Pätäri, Eero & Karell, Ville & Luukka, Pasi & Yeomans, Julian S, 2018. "Comparison of the multicriteria decision-making methods for equity portfolio selection: The U.S. evidence," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 265(2), pages 655-672.
    14. Lin, Hai & Tao, Xinyuan & Wu, Chunchi, 2022. "Forecasting earnings with combination of analyst forecasts," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 133-159.
    15. Giorgio Calcagnini & Annalisa Ferrando & Germana Giombini, 2015. "Multiple market imperfections, firm profitability and investment," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 95-120, August.
    16. Eleonora Bartoloni & Maurizio Baussola, 2015. "Persistent Product Innovation and Market-oriented Behaviour: the Impact on Firms' Performance," DISCE - Quaderni del Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali dises1505, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Dipartimenti e Istituti di Scienze Economiche (DISCE).
    17. Miguel A. Ariño & Africa Ariño & Roberto Garcia-Castro, 2008. "A model to evaluate transient industry effects," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(8), pages 629-637.
    18. Chang, Chia-Lin & Hsu, Hui-Kuang & McAleer, Michael, 2013. "Is small beautiful? Size effects of volatility spillovers for firm performance and exchange rates in tourism," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 519-534.
    19. Xiaofei Zhao, 2017. "Does Information Intensity Matter for Stock Returns? Evidence from Form 8-K Filings," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(5), pages 1382-1404, May.
    20. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:86:y:2023:i:pa:s0301420723009285. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30467 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.