are the big boys really that smart ?

Looking back at recent history , it would seem not.

It would be logical for the majors to be taking advantage of these bargain prices , right ?? and bidding for their junior counterparts??

However (just like any average investor ), they only buy after things go up!!

Here are some examples in the gold space of recent corporate activity.....

- October 2007. Newmont paid $1.5b for Miramar to get the Hope Bay project in Nunavut

- February 2011. Newmont bought Fronteer gold for $2.3b. This equates to >$500 per ounce. There are plenty of great projects around at the moment that they could buy for less than $100 per ounce. Why so gun-shy now?!

- August 2010. Kinross paid $7B!!! to buy 90% of Redback mining which owned the Tassiat deposit in Mali. The value of the assets acquired in the takeover were written down by $3b in February of this year.

- September 2010. Goldcorp bought Andean for $3.5b, valuing the in-ground gold at $1000/oz. As above, the avg price of in-ground gold is $100/oz (I realise Andean was high-grade). Remember, Eldorado were also sniffing around Andean at these prices.

- December 2010. Eldorado paid high prices for European goldfields instead.

- April 2011. Barrick (a gold producer…) paid $7b for Equinox (…a copper producer) when copper was within a few % of its all-time high !!

- Not in the gold space, but;
o Peabody paid $5b for Macarthur coal last year. Peabody’s market cap is now $6b.

o BHP paid $20b for Petrohawk last year and we haven’t seen them since.
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So many here will be left scratching their head as to why a deal hasn't already been done with AMX , taking advantage of the depressed prices. AMX Currently sitting well under $100/oz for gold in ground.

The reason is simple , they are not buying for the same reasons as the everyday investor isn't buying . Its not so much a mater of doing deals when prices are low , but more like doing deals when overall market confidence is high. This makes larger sized deals far easier to swallow for the shareholders of the majors. This way the majors can make deals without thier own shareprice hitting the skids and putting investors offside .

So , keep an eye on the gold equities space. the sector seems to have found a bottom in recent weeks, if this strength can continue , or we see a QE3 coming onto the table, it could open the doors for another round of deals in the junior gold space.

And remember, that many big co's are looking to get a foot in the door over in Burkina faso. Amx currently have the largest undeveloped gold resource there(1g/t cutoff) And also have one of the biggest prospective land holdings in west africa. Not too many opportunities in the world where you can still buy your own entire gold belt for under a billion $$.

There is a huge value/price divide at play here. Could explode to the upside when the penny drops.

Stay firm LT holders of AMX . Our time in the sun may be about to return imo.