Here are some interesting points, taken from the November 9, 2006 “Top of the Morning” Email letter, on the current consolidation occurring in the gold mining sector.

Metals and Mining Notes

- A look back at the top 30 North American pure gold companies over 10 years shows that only six of them remain and those that are left have quite different asset bases than they did 10 years ago.

- Goldcorp was the 31st largest by reserves in 1996.

- At the peak of the Tech Bubble in the 1999, the market capitalization of the global gold industry sat at about US$ 50 B. Now the combined market cap of the top three Canadian (Gold Mining) companies alone (including the merged Goldcorp/Glamis) sits at about US$ 65 B.

Source: November 9, 2006, Email newsletter “Top of the Morning” from the office of Simon Jaques and Bob Mawhinney, Investment Advisors from Research Capital Corp. in Vancouver, Canada