We're only two weeks into 2026, and it already seems like precious metals like gold and silver will likely continue outperforming as geopolitical tensions rise – Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Greenland, you name it.

Today, we'll turn our attention to the metals and miners sector, which tends to be more volatile than the individual commodities themselves, but also offers tremendous upside if you pick well-run companies.

We've selected six large-cap precious metals miners that could provide this potential. Each company has a net profit margin of at least 15% and a Benzinga Edge Quality Score of at least 90.

Hecla Mining Co.

Benzinga Edge Quality Score: 97.64

Hecla Mining (NYSE:HL) is an Idaho-based mining conglomerate that's been operating since the early 1890s. The firm boasts a market cap of nearly $17 billion and generates more than $1.2 billion in annual sales, with a net profit margin of 16.2% in its most recent earnings release. The company mines gold, silver, and zinc across North America, although most of its revenue comes from operations in the United States.

Hecla Mining's valuation is getting elevated (although with the Relative Strength Index), but there's still plenty of evidence that the long-term trend points upward. The stock is trading well above its 50-day and 200-day simple moving averages (SMAs), and the 50-day SMA has acted as support for several months. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator is also trending upward, as the MACD line has crossed above the signal line, a classic bullish signal.

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DRDGold Ltd.

Benzinga Edge Quality Score: 98.47

DRDGold (NYSE:DRD) had a volatile finish to 2025, but the rally appears to have resumed with ferocity. DRDGold has a $3 billion market cap, which puts it at the bottom end of the large-cap table, but the company operates a less capital-intensive business. Instead of traditional mining, DRD uses surface-tailing retreatment strategies to recover gold particles with minimal environmental impact. It's a high-margin business (28.5% net) and has driven the stock to a 280% gain over the last 12 months.

DRD shares pulled back in October, but the selloff was short-lived, and the stock quickly found support at the 50-day SMA. DRD wasted no time making a new all-time high this month, and the bullish cross on the MACD hints that there's more upside yet to come.

Kinross Gold Corp.

Benzinga Edge Quality Score: 97.49

Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC) is one of Canada's largest gold producers, with a $40 billion market cap and more than $5 billion in reported annual sales. The company's Q3 2025 earnings report, released in November, was one of the best in the firm’s history, with revenue of $1.8 billion and earnings of $0.44 per share (both records). The company's net profit margin was also impressive at 27.3%, and it produced more than 500,000 ounces during the period.

Kinross has a diverse pipeline and a sturdy balance sheet, which is why the stock has rallied more than 200% over the last year, far surpassing gold's spot price gains. The uptrend remains strong, supported by the 50-day SMA, but investors might want to approach the MACD cautiously. The MACD and signal lines are drifting apart, which often hints that the rally is getting overextended and a short-term pullback is imminent.

OR Royalties Inc.

Benzinga Edge Quality Score: 94.14

Sometimes the best mining strategy doesn't involve a single shovel hitting the ground. OR Royalties (NYSE:OR) earns its revenue from royalties and streams from various precious metals projects, and its recent net margins have been north of 60%. The company has a market cap of $7.68 billion and has already gained more than 15% in 2026, putting the stock near its October all-time high.

A breakout above the previous all-time high is always a bullish sign, and some underlying indicators suggest OR shares will get there. The MACD has been getting increasingly bullish; both lines have crossed above the histogram, and now the MACD line has crossed over the signal line. The stock now trades firmly about its 50-day and 200-day SMAs, and it’s hard not to see new all-time highs from here.

Southern Copper Corp.

Benzinga Edge Quality Score: 92.36

Copper is often a forgotten item in the precious metals industry, but copper prices have also been soaring, and copper-mining stocks could be the next big winners after gold and silver. Southern Copper Corp. (NYSE:SCCO) is one of the best of the bunch, a $150 billion company with operations in mining, smelting, refining, and the sale of finished copper products. Primary operations are in Mexico and Peru, and the company generated more than $12 billion in revenue last year, with 31% net margins in the most recent quarter.

Copper stocks lagged gold and silver in 2025, but the new year brings new opportunities, and SCCO is already up 27% in January. The MACD confirmed the breakout with a bullish cross shortly after New Year's Day, and now the stock has been up 9 of the last 10 sessions. 

SSR Mining Inc.

Benzinga Edge Quality Score: 92.96

Silver Standard Resources, or SSR Mining (NASDAQ:SSRM), is a $4.8 billion gold and silver producer with mines in Nevada, Saskatchewan, and Argentina. SSR Mining narrowly fit our criteria with 15% net profit margins in its most recent quarter, but the stock appears undervalued compared to its peers, trading at just 23 times earnings and 1.2 times book value. It also seems poised to resume its 2025 rally, which produced gains of more than 200%.

The dotted lines on the chart above represent a bullish wedge pattern, which forms when an uptrend needs time to consolidate. The stock usually trades in a tight range with lower highs and higher lows before breaking above the top of the wedge and continuing higher. False breakouts are common with this pattern, but the 50-day and 200-day SMAs and RSI confirm the bullish activity.