WESTERN Australia's seemingly unstoppable supremacy on top of the stock exchange leader board has taken a battering over the past year, with a significant percentage of the state's mining and resources groups finding themselves in the crosshairs of worrie
WESTERN Australia's seemingly unstoppable supremacy on top of the stock exchange leader board has taken a battering over the past year, with a significant percentage of the state's mining and resources groups finding themselves in the crosshairs of worried investors.
At the close of the markets last Monday, WA stocks had slumped from the heights of the past 12 months to new lows.
Among those hardest hit were the mining and resources sectors.
Some of the state's most prominent mining names fell by significant amounts, some more than 90 percent from their peak value.
This is a staggering figure when it's considered how much these companies have contributed to the state's economic growth in recent times.
Three separate entities in WA have fallen to a share value of just 10 per cent of their 12-month high.
Jabiru Metals finished the day's trading on Monday at just 15 cents per share, down 91 per cent from its 12-month high.
The West Perth-based mining group is a base metals company largely focused on production from its zinc-copper mine, called Jaguar, located 300 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie.
Albidon closed at 50 cents per share, equating to a drop of 90 percent from its 12-month high of $5.10, which it reached on May 30.
The metals and mining group must be hoping the recent appointment of new general manager for its Munali nickel project operations, Grant Pierce, will enable a quick ramp-up of production at the facility.
Another well-known mining group that dropped 90 percent is CopperCo, closing at 13 cents per share.
CopperCo is heavily engaged in its Lady Annie Operations, found 120km north of Mt Isa in Queensland.
According to its company website, Lady Annie is producing at an annualised rate of 19,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of copper cathode and will increase production to 30,000tpa early in 2009.
And the Lady Annie project was also the first new metal mine to come on stream in north-west Queensland in a decade and is only one of a handful within Australia.
A total of 17 other WA businesses had dropped by an astonishing 80 per cent or more by Monday's close.
Minara Resources closed the day's trading at 80 cents per share, a fall of 89 per cent since reaching its 12-month high.
Straits Resources finished slightly stronger than Minara at $1.03, a drop of 88 per cent.
Murchison Metals, Sundance Resources Limited and Abitya Birla Minerals have all taken a tumble of 86 per cent, closing at 75 cents per share, 12 cents per share and 61 cents per share respectively.
Panoramic Resources Limited closed on Monday at $, a fall of 84 per cent.
Anvil Mining closed the day at $3.72, a reduction of 83 per cent from its 12-month high.
Five WA companies have fallen by 82 per cent from their respective 12-month highs.
Mincor Resources closed at 94 cents per share, while United Minerals Corporation and Giralia Resources both closed the day at 51 cents per share.
Great Southern finished at 42 cents per share while Independence Group closed at $1.69.
Rounding out the top 20 biggest falls in share price from their 12-month high were four WA companies that fell by 81 per cent. Coote Industrial closed at 59 cents, both Sylvania Rescources Limited and Brockman Resources were at 60 cents at the close on Monday, while Mount Gibson Iron Ore wound up the day at 70 cents per share.
Finally, Sphere Investments, a West African-focused iron ore company dropped by 80 per cent to close at 80 cents per share.
Among the various other sectors and industries to feel the sting of the crashing share values are some of WA's largest listed organisations.
Woodside Petroleum, WA's biggest company by market value, finished trading at $36.81 per share, down 48 per cent from its 12-month high. Woodside was trading at $51 per share as recently as September 30.
The state's biggest industrial company and the country's biggest retailer, Wesfarmers, closed at $21.22, down 52 per cent from its 12-month high.
These figures highlight how the value of some of WA's most popular blue chip stocks have dropped by more than 50 per cent - an incredible occurrence when thinking back only 50 weeks ago, the share market reached the pinnacle of five years of sustained growth.
Engineering and contracting companies Monadelphus and Macmahon, which have thrived during the resources boom and have strong order books, have been relatively good performers.
Monadelphous closed at $9.50, down 46 per cent, while Macmahon closed at $1.32, down 34 per cent.
In contrast, some of the most famous mining stocks have been devastated over the past year.
Iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group closed at $2.82, compared with a year high of $13.15.
This meant another change to Australia's richest person list as Andrew Forrest's $13 billion paper fortune was whittled down, dropping below $2.9 billion.
Uranium miner Paladin Energy closed at $2.21, down from $9.36.
Iron and coal stock Aquila Resources closed at $4.16, down from $17.95.
One of the few stocks holding up in the current market is iron ore miner Portman, the subject of a takeover offer from major shareholder Cleveland-Cliffs.
The plunge in stock values started in November last year, after the S&P/ASX200 index peaked at 6828.7 points.
It closed on Monday at 4,180 points, a fall of 39 per cent.
