Mining’s rising geopolitical standing is helping inflate share values. Perceptions of the strength of mining’s major brands are, however, going backwards, according to London-based Brand Finance.
Its latest annual ranking of the world’s top 500 brands features only one mining and metals company, Glencore, which went backwards from 394 to 471 in the 2025 list.
The latest top 500 features 15 oil and gas companies, including highly ranked Shell (28), Aramco (35) and Petrochina (55). It’s not recognised for mining but energy company Canadian Natural Resources (427) mines a lot of oil sands in western Canada.
Glencore went back in the latest rankings despite Brand Finance’s assessment of its brand value rising 4% year-on-year to US$6.2 billion – one-hundredth of the value of top international brand, Apple.
US technology brands Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Nvidia held the top five places.
Previous top mining and metals brands, BHP and Rio Tinto, disappeared from the 2025 Brand Finance list. The combined value of the world’s top 50 mining brands fell for the first time in four years.
China, with 23.1% of the combined value, and Australia (14.6%), led the list of countries that host companies on Brand Finance’s mining and metals list.
It says its 18-year-old annual evaluation of the value of more than 5000 global brands in over 40 industry sectors uses Royalty Relief methodology to calculate brand strength – via its Brand Strength Index (BSI) – and applicable royalty and discount rates, and brand-revenue-share estimates.
