Poking Around For Likely Takeovers

A Morningstar report says takeovers are going to continue in the gold-mining sector, and it tries to identify some. Since the report left out gold juniors, the universe of small- and mid-tier producers it works with is fairly small.

According to its author, Joung Park, there are three factors motivating a takeover as based upon recent ones: the potential target has to have sizable amounts of low-cost reserves, near the potential acquirer's own properties, and there already has to be a joint-venture or minority-stake relationship between the latter and the former. Based upon these criteria, the only takeover candidate Park fleshed out is Kinross Gold; that company is a potential target for Barrick. Two other candidates are mentioned, but the would-be acquiers would be more likely to buy a property instead of the whole company in those cases.