The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[jbog]

Miners Are Flush With Cash Again

BHP, Rio Tinto, Glencore are raking in profits thanks to a commodity price rally

By Scott Patterson
Updated Aug. 22, 2017 11:50 a.m. ET

LONDON—The world’s biggest miners are on a tear.

Fueled by a sharp rise in commodities prices, companies like BHP Billiton Ltd. BHP 1.22% , Glencore GLNCY 1.82% PLC and Rio Tinto PLC are flush with cash again, boosting dividends, cutting debt and shelling out cash for expansion projects. Just a couple of years ago, they were scrambling to survive in the midst of a historic downturn.

The world’s biggest mining company, BHP, reported Tuesday a net profit of $5.9 billion for the 12 months ended June 30. That is a sharp turnaround from the previous year’s loss of $6.4 billion, when the
company took big charges from U.S. oil-and-gas business and a fatal 2015 dam failure at an iron-ore operation in Brazil.


https://www.wsj.com/articles/miners-are-flush-with-cash-again-1503416133

I wonder if any of the big guys would entertain looking at Cliffs. Cliffs has around a $3.6 bil EV. They could probalby scoop it up in the $5.5 - $6.0 bil range.