Strong growth in commodity prices directly contributed to the ASX 200 materials sector leading the market in FY26.
Materials shares, dominated by miners, soared 47.48% and produced total returns, including dividends, of 52.11% in FY26.
Materials outperformed the benchmark index by an incredible 7:1.
The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) edged just 2.77% higher and returned a total of 7%.
Experts say there's more growth to come for the materials sector, with Australia now in a new mining boom that will be different to the last.
The biggest difference is the type of commodities in demand due to the green energy transition and artificial intelligence (AI) build-out.
In FY26, lithium was the stand-out commodity, with lithium spodumene rocketing from about US$600 per tonne in June 2025 to US$2,270 per tonne today.
The lithium carbonate price is 160% higher year over year at US$22,336 per tonne.
Supply/demand for lithium has finally rebalanced after a long period of oversupply that sent commodity prices plummeting between mid-2023 and mid-2025.
Several younger Australian lithium miners, such as Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO), put their operations into care and maintenance as a result.
Meanwhile, demand began growing rapidly again for batteries, green energy power infrastructure, and electric vehicles (EV) over time.
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10 commodity prices in FY26
Based on Trading Economics and Shanghai Metals data, FY26 price growth for 10 key Australian commodities is shown below.
| Metal or mineral | Commodity price rise in FY26 |
| Lithium spodumene | 278% |
| Lithium carbonate | 160% |
| Neodymium | 80% |
| Cobalt | 69% |
| Silver | 58% |
| Coal (met) | 39% |
| Aluminium | 19% |
| Gold | 18% |
| Copper | 18% |
| Coal (thermal) | 16% |
| Iron Ore | 7% |
How rising commodity values impacted ASX mining shares
Soaring lithium prices helped turbocharge the ASX 200's largest lithium share, PLS Group Ltd (ASX: PLS), in FY26.
PLS Group shares screamed 275% higher in FY26 and hit a record $6.81 last month.
This performance put PLS Group, formerly known as Pilbara Minerals, in the top 5 best-performing ASX 200 shares of FY26.
Alongside PLS Group in that list is Elevra Lithium Ltd (ASX: ELV), up 327% in FY26.
The market's largest ASX 200 mining share, BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP), soared 62% in FY26.
That's a lot of growth for an ASX 200 large-cap share! BHP shares finished the year at $59.40 after hitting a record $65.98 in June.
A strengthening copper price, which hit a record US$6.60 per pound in May, helped BHP shares soar last year.
BHP has long been known as a major iron ore producer, but it's also now the world's largest copper producer.
These days, copper forms more than half of BHP's underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA).
The strong copper price also pushed the market's largest pure-play ASX 200 copper share, Sandfire Resources Ltd (ASX: SFR), 71% higher in FY26.
Among ASX 200 gold shares, Minerals 260 Ltd (ASX: MI6) leapt 508%, as its development project progressed.
A respectable 18% lift in the gold price over FY26 supported the Minerals 260 share price.
Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) shares rose 64% and Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX: EVN) jumped 51%.
Silver, which has many industrial uses including solar panels and data centres due to its superior conductivity to copper, rose 58% last year.
ASX silver share Andean Silver (ASX: ASL) rose almost 90% in FY26.
