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Wednesday, December 27, 2006

M&A Feeding Frenzy in Gold Stocks to Continue

Here are some excerpts from a Bloomberg news story about takeovers in the gold mining industry...

Gold-company acquisitions this year surged to the highest level in at least a decade, and the industry may continue its buying spree in 2007 as producers struggle to find new deposits.

There were 357 deals this year valued at $24.3 billion. That eclipsed the $16.2 billion spent last year on 341 transactions.

Mines are being depleted faster than new reserves are being found. The number of discoveries of at least 2.5 million ounces has declined for eight straight years, according to Metals Economics Group inHalifax, Nova Scotia.

From 1992 to 2005, the world produced 1.1 billion ounces of gold, or 1.8 times more than the new resources discovered among deposits of at least 2.5 million ounces, Metals Economics Group said.

Global gold production in the nine months ended September fell 2.2% to 1,804 metric tons from a year earlier, London-based researcher GFMS Ltd. estimated. The lack of new supply will help boost gold prices by $200 over the next two years, topping $800 an ounce, according to Goldcorp Chairman Ian Telfer.

There is a lot more in the story. To read it,
CLICK HERE.

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