The Mineral Resources Limited (ASX: MIN) share price has managed to set a new all-time high every week between 7 June and 30 July.
Unfortunately, the bullish run for Mineral Resources came to a grinding halt last week, when the company's shares tumbled 7.3%.
It's a similar narrative for the iron ore majors including the likes of BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP), Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX: FMG) and Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO), sliding a respective 2.71%, 6.30% and 2.18% last week.
Despite the sharp pullback last week, the Mineral Resources share price has spent most of the year trending higher. It's up 53% year-to-date.
By comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Materials (INDEXASX: XMJ) is up 12.58% this year.
Mineral Resources has managed to race well ahead of diversified iron ore majors BHP and Rio Tinto, which have rallied 20.99% and 12.73% year-to-date.
Conversely, recent headlines of iron ore tumbling below US$200/tonne have dragged the Fortescue share price to a negative 7.06% year-to-date performance.
Image source: Getty Images
What's driving the outperformance of the Mineral Resources share price?
Significant growth in iron ore production
According to Mineral Resources, the company is Australia's fifth-largest iron ore producer.
However, its production figures pale in comparison to BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue.
In Mineral Resources' June quarter and full-year FY21 activities report, the company reported a record 17.3 million wet metric tonnes (wmt) of iron ore shipments.
By comparison, Fortescue reported full-year FY21 iron ore shipments of 182.2 million tonnes.
Mineral Resources is poised for significant growth in its iron ore production over the next five years, aiming to grow its production from 20 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) to 90 Mtpa.
Riding the lithium hype
Meantime, ASX200 lithium giants Galaxy Resources Limited (ASX: GXY) and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS) have delivered triple-digit year-to-date returns thanks to surging lithium prices and heightened demand for electric vehicles.
Investors often forget that Mineral Resources is one of the world's top 5 lithium miners with joint ownership of two major hard rock lithium mines.
The company's recent activities report highlighted 484,984 dry metric tonnes of lithium spodumene production in FY21, a 34% increase on the prior corresponding period.
