By Ben Kramer-Miller
Wall Street Cheat Sheet
Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) is the largest gold mining company by market capitalization [tied with Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX)], although it produces less than half the gold that Barrick produces. One of the reasons for this is that Goldcorp is a growing company. The company has two mines coming online this year that will increase annual production by over 20 percent — Eleonore and Cerro Negro.
But after these two mines come online Goldcorp doesn’t have any significant growth prospects. Furthermore, several of its assets are depleting rapidly, and the company either needs to expand these resources or find new ones.
Given the company’s activities this year it seems that management is opting for the latter. Earlier in the year the company pursued Osisko Mining, which was eventually bought out by Agnico Eagle (NYSE:AEM) and Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY). More recently we learned that Goldcorp was in talks with Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM) to buy its Ahaho and Akyem Mines in Ghana.