What do you think of speculation that AEM is now NEM's take-out target?
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G'morning Dan,
I'd be surprised if that deal comes about. It's been a while since I even looked at AEM, but I seem to recall them having a relatively small reserve (under 5 million oz?)and a lot of operational problems that seem to be showing up in their shareprice.
In my view, not what a mega producer like NEM would be looking for, although AEM's under a billion $$ market cap could make them a relatively cheap acquisition compared to PDG, who would be my choice of a NEM buyout, at over six times the cost.
I could more easily see NEM taking out PDG and then selling PDG's Campbell mine to next door neighbor Goldcorp to reduce NEM's overall cost exposure while picking up some decent reserve numbers for themselves.
I definitely believe NEM is now shopping for new reserves and it should be a bit of a spark for the entire sector when they decide to make their objectives known.
I'd be very interested in hearing your views on this matter.