Randgold: Funding dearth means more junior gold consolidation

Speaking in an interview with MiningWeekly, CEO Mark Bristow said he expected deal making in the junior gold space to continue, as funding sources dry up.

MINING.com suggested last month that junior and mid-size players start buffing up their projects: Standard Chartered has estimated that the world’s six largest mining companies will amass $144 billion in cash over the next two years and quoted Ric Ronge of Pengana Global Resources Fund: “We’re not expecting a doomsday outcome for the miners and especially the bigger companies, which are the potential acquirers.”

The gold sector is expected to generate much of the M&A activity in the resource sector as big players seek to secure new supplies. So far this year more than 430 gold miners have been taken over.

MINING.com reported mid-October after slumping to the level of high teens at the height of the 2008 banking crisis, in 2011 acquirers have been willing to pay an average premium of more than 50% on the value of the shares of a target during the prior month.

Read more on M&A activity in the mining sector…

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