L1 Capital spends more than $58m on Mineral Resources shares this week to increase its stake to 9.2 per cent

A major Mineral Resources shareholder and Chris Ellison cheerleader is continuing to double down on its investment in the floundering miner and mining services provider. L1 Capital shelled out more than $58 million over the past week snapping up MinRes’ stock to boost its stake from 7.6 per cent to 9.2 per cent. The Melbourne-based fund manager made the flurry of purchases as the MinRes share price tailspin persisted, having lost more than 40 per cent over the past month and 68 per cent over the past year. L1 became a substantial MinRes shareholder in September and has stuck by the mining outfit and its disgraced managing director — Chris Ellison — after revelations he had evaded tax and misused company resources emerged in October. In the wake of the revelations, Mr Ellison is due to step down by May next year, but L1’s joint managing director Raphael Lamm in November said the Kiwi native should remain as managing director. “L1 Capital is supportive of Chris Ellison remaining as CEO with a more appropriate corporate governance structure in place,” he said. “We understand there is widespread shareholder support for Chris remaining as CEO over the medium term given his track record of delivering enormous shareholder value over many years.” But since that statement MinRes has been plagued by a growing debt burden combined with issues at its new Onslow Iron project, particularly the crucial 147km haul road that links the iron ore mining deposits to port. Mr Ellison in the middle of last year said the Onslow project was the biggest achievement of his career. MinRes last Friday sought to draw a line in the sand, stating Onslow was shipping at an annualised run-rate of about 20 million tonnes per annum and “well progressed” to achieve its nameplate capacity of 35mpta during the beginning of the 2026 financial year.