Record metals prices catapult mining profits beyond big oil

Major oil producers, for decades the natural resource industry’s top earners, are being eclipsed by once-smaller mining peers who are churning out record profits thanks to red-hot metals markets.

The mining windfall is the latest sign of a boom in iron ore, copper and other metals that’s sending an inflationary wave through the global economy, increasing the cost of everything from electrical wires to construction beams.

In the corporate world, the top five iron ore mining companies are on track to deliver bottom-line profits of $65 billion combined this year, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That’s about 13% more than the five biggest international oil producers, flipping a decades-old hierarchy.