Fitch Ratings on Wednesday upgraded Mineral Resources' (ASX:MIN) long-term issuer default rating to "BB" from "BB-," with a stable outlook.
The upgrade reflects the company's growing operations and significant deleveraging, as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization net leverage improved to 1.8x in fiscal 2026 from 7.7x in the previous fiscal year.
The upgrade also follows Mineral Resources making progress in rebuilding its corporate-governance framework, which has eased pressure on the ratings, Fitch said.
The ratings agency expects leverage to remain well below 3x under its commodity-price assumptions, and believes the Middle East conflict will not have an immediate impact on the company's operations given fuel's relatively low contribution to total input costs.
The stable outlook, meanwhile, reflects an expectation that Mineral Resources will maintain disciplined capital allocation and gradually resume its growth plans following deleveraging, which could support a strong balance sheet.