Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX: MIN) shares have been hit pretty hard this week, and Friday hasn't brought much relief.
The stock is down another 1.04% to $53.54 in afternoon trade.
That brings its decline to around 12.6% over the past 5 sessions and more than 20% over a month.
Interestingly, there hasn't been a major company announcement this week to explain the selling.
So, what exactly is going on?
Image source: Getty Images
Lithium prices are sliding again
The first place I'd look is the lithium market, which has had a rough few weeks.
According to Trading Economics, lithium carbonate is currently trading around 134,300 yuan per tonne.
That leaves the commodity down more than 12% over the past month after a strong run through the first half of 2026.
And Mineral Resources isn't the only lithium stock being sold off.
PLS Group Ltd (ASX: PLS) shares are down 17.58% over the past month, while Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX: LTR) has fallen 21.35%.
Mineral Resources has plenty riding on lithium as well.
The segment generated $771 million of underlying EBITDA in FY26, helped by record sales volumes and higher prices.
What's been hitting lithium?
A couple of developments out of China have knocked lithium prices around this month.
Earlier in September, Shanghai Metals Market changed the way it measures lithium carbonate inventories.
The survey now includes more traders, battery manufacturers, and other holders than it did previously.
That quickly pushed reported inventories higher.
However, much of the increase came from the expanded survey itself.
Reuters also reported last week that China had temporarily paused approvals for new battery energy storage manufacturing projects.
The sector is now being reviewed before new projects are allowed to move ahead.
What about iron ore?
Iron ore doesn't look like the reason Mineral Resources shares have been falling this week.
At the time of writing, iron ore is trading around US$97.42 per tonne.
That's actually up around 2.3% over the past month, although the commodity is still 7.4% lower than a year ago.
And iron ore is now a huge part of the Mineral Resources business.
The division generated $1 billion of underlying EBITDA in FY26, making it the company's biggest earnings contributor.
A large chunk of that came from Onslow Iron, which contributed $909 million after ramping up production during the year.
Mineral Resources is guiding for attributable iron ore sales of 20 million to 21.7 million tonnes in FY27.
