Image Credit: Brand Finance
Agnico Eagle (new entrant, brand value US$547.2 million) emerged as the strongest2 mining brand in this year’s rankings with a corresponding brand strength rating of AA+. With a robust 7% growth in gold production guidance through 2025, the Canadian mining brand made substantial progress on existing development projects and realised synergies with the acquisition of assets belonging to other mining brands. This resulted in the successful expansion of mineral reserves and resources by 9% and 12% respectively. Despite higher costs of such exploration and amortisation, Agnico Eagle continued to see an increase in net income driven by higher sales volumes – contributing to stronger brand performance.
South Korea’s Posco has the highest Sustainability Perceptions Value3 among all mining brands in the rankings at US$189 million. The mining brand’s results reflect its contributions towards a low-carbon circular economy, underscored by the mining brand’s commitment to achieve carbon neutrality throughout all stages of its steelmaking processes by 2050. However, it is important to note that Posco’s position at the top of the Sustainability Perceptions Value table is not an assessment of its overall sustainability performance. Instead, it highlights the value that Posco has tied up in the sustainability perceptions of stakeholders.
Savio D’Souza, Valuation Director at Brand Finance, commented:
“The mining industry continues to play an increasingly integral role in the global economy owing to repercussions of the pandemic and geopolitical uncertainties. Mining brands therefore have a bright long-term outlook by capturing this business value through future proofing themselves to optimise engagement with stakeholders on key topics such as sustainability and talent attraction.”
1 Brand value is understood as the net economic benefit that a brand owner would achieve by licensing the brand in the open market. The full ranking, additional insights, charts, more information about the methodology and definitions of key terms are available in the Brand Finance Mining, Metals & Minerals 50 2023 report.
2 Brand Finance determines the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics evaluating marketing investment, stakeholder equity and business performance. Compliant with ISO 20671, Brand Finance’s assessment of stakeholder equity incorporates original market research data from over 150,000 respondents in 38 countries and across 31 sectors.
3 As part of its analysis, Brand Finance assesses the role that specific brand attributes play in driving overall brand value. One such attribute growing rapidly in significance is sustainability. Brand Finance assesses how sustainable specific brands are perceived to be, represented by a Sustainability Perceptions Score. The value that is linked to this score, the Sustainability Perceptions Value, is then calculated for each brand.