The Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX: MIN) share price has dropped more than 6% after announcing a share sale by Managing Director Chris Ellison.
Mineral Resources describes itself as a leading diversified resources company, with operations in lithium, iron ore, energy and mining services across Western Australia.
Chris Ellison share sale
The ASX mining share announced an Appendix 3Y today that revealed that Managing Director Chris Ellison had decided to reduce his ownership of Mineral Resources shares.
Ellison’s most recent prior disposal of Mineral Resources shares happened in December 2017 – it had occurred many years ago.
The Managing Director decided to sell 1.75 million Mineral Resources shares between 11 May and 14 May 2026. The sale price was $69.98 per share. That means Ellison raised approximately $122.5 million from this disposal.
For most Australians, that is a very large sale and it’s understandable why the market would be fearful about what this means.
Why did Ellison choose now to sell? Was it overvalued at $69.98?
Mineral Resources said that the disposal was “undertaken for personal financial planning purposes, including the establishment of a family office, and was conducted in accordance with MinRes’ Securities Trading Policy”.
Should investors be worried about Mineral Resources shares?
The ASX mining share noted that Ellison has been the major shareholder of Mineral Resources for 33 years, including 20 years as a publicly listed company and remains the company’s largest shareholder.
Chris Ellison retains a significant shareholding of 20,834,661 Mineral Resources shares, representing 10.54% of issued capital.
In other words, Ellison still has $1.35 billion of the business, which is still a large exposure to have to the ASX mining share.
The company’s profitability has significantly increased for both its iron ore and lithium operations thanks to an improved resource price as demand remains stronger than expected.
I can see why Ellison would have used this time to reduce the position because it has risen well over 100% in the past year. Cyclical resource businesses are only going to rise so far when it’s based on a rising commodity price.
I wouldn’t buy or sell shares just based on this news, though I wouldn’t jump to invest today because it has already risen so much.
