[CHART] Timeline of Mining Mergers and Acquisitions

Last year was a down year for mergers and acquisitions in the mining industry. There were a mere 544 deals in 2014 for the unimpressive total of $44.6 billion, marking the lowest points for both volume of deals and their value since 2003 and 2004. Things are expected to be much better in 2015.

The following chart takes a look back at the number of mining mergers and acquisitions over the last 12 years.

(Source: VisualCapitalist)

According to Visualcapitalist, the majority of mergers and acquisitions occur during both peak and tough times in the market.  

“The answer: the number of deals peaked in the aftermath of the Financial Crisis in 2009 and 2010. During this time, the overall market dropped off and subsequently recovered with the commodity supercycle still intact. The average value per deal was very low post-crisis, steadily increasing until 2011 when the junior market would reach its most recent heights.

During hot market years, M&A activity was frequent and significant. In years such as 2006, 2007, and 2011, both the cumulative value and the average value per deal were at their highest rates. In the down year of 2013 the data was also relatively positive, but it was also skewed by the $90 billion merger of Glencore and Xstrata. Not including this outlier, it would appear that the data point would be more in line with the trend.”