Evaluation of mining companies based on benchmarking

by the availability of high-quality information. The sources of such
information may be different analyses and studies, including
company benchmarking. However, such analyses and studies often
have in-company character, which makes access to some information
on the national economy difficult. To deal with this problem in the
mining sector, the article deals with benchmarking of 30 mining
companies operating in the Czech Republic. Based on the size of
mining, the first four companies in each group of minerals, or more
precisely, a subgroup of minerals (hard coal, brown coal, oil, natural
gas, brick raw material, building stone, decorative stone, gravel and
sand, limestone, kaolin, clays and bentonite) were selected for the
benchmarking project. Benchmarking was conducted for the period
from 2011 to 2018 using six financial analysis indicators: ROA,
inventory turnover, total debt, immediate liquidity, LTTA
productivity, networking capital turnover. Individual benchmarks do
not have the same weight, and weights were determined by AHP. The
evaluation was done using a mathematical-statistical method of the
weighted sum approach. The benchmarking showed that the top 3
mining companies are Cement Hranice, akciová společnost (1) –
limestone; Green Gas DPB, a.s. (2) - energy raw materials (natural
gas); and EUROVIA Kamenolomy, a.s. (3) - building materials
(building stone). At the opposite end of the list there are: Cihelna
Hodonín, s.r.o. (30) - building materials (brick-making material);
Sedlecký kaolin, a.s. (29) – kaolin; and CEMEX Sand, k.s. (28) -
building materials (gravel and sand). Furthermore, it was found that:
(i) the economic success of the mining undertaking is not related to
the volume of production or indebtedness; (ii) limited liability
companies are more economically successful than joint-stock
companies. It has not been proven unequivocally that specialisation
in a single extracted material is a better strategy than extracting more
mineral resources.