There’s no sugarcoating it: 2013 was one of the worst years for mining industry mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in nearly a decade.

Such was the damning conclusion drawn by PricewaterhouseCoopers in its 2014 Global Mining Deals Outlook and 2013 Review. A quick look at the M&A activity in the sector since 2008 reveals that it’s warranted.

The good news (well, sort of) is that gold dominated mining M&A last year. Measured by value, gold deals accounted for 28% of the total—the largest slice of the overall transaction pie—a veritable star in an otherwise dismal universe.

Here’s an overview of last year’s major M&A deals in the gold industry:

Note that all of deals in the above table (as well as the one that follows) are “floored” at $50 million to filter out the bulk of the “juniors buying juniors for mutual survival” noise common in this sort of market.

As you can see, buyers preferred low-risk acquisitions. This reflects the major miners’ conservative mood. Of the 13 target companies, nine were producers (including individual mines), two more were developing toward production, and only two were explorers.

This makes sense when you consider that many producers are a good bargain in the current market. For the better part of 2013, producers struggled to rein in costs, after gold prices dropped so dramatically—as did their share prices. This weakness was clearly seen by some as an opportunity to snap up valuable producing assets at a discount.

This is all well and good, but the important question for us is: does 2014 look any better? And if so, what does it mean for us as speculators?

With that in mind, here’s the roster of activity for the first half of 2014:

While some of these transactions have not yet closed, they all look likely to do so, making it clear that the 2014 rally in gold has gotten us off to a great start; as many as four deals were announced in just the first two months of the year, and more followed shortly thereafter.

Companies were valued at an average of $80 per ounce of resource, down $9.50 from 2013’s average of $89.50. However, the mean transaction value saw an impressive increase from $493 million to $573 million. Moreover, the mean reported bid premium was up 8.5%, from 30.9% in 2013 to 39.4% for Q1 and Q2 of 2014.

The first halves of 2014 and 2013 saw nine and six transactions respectively—a clear sign pointing to much improved M&A activity this year. Better yet, the aggregate volume of transactions in the first half of 2014 is above $5.1 billion, vs. just $6.4 billion for all of last year. Last year had a clear outlier as well, and this one wasn’t even a full-fledged company acquisition: the sale of Mikhail Prokhorov’s 37.8% stake in Polyus Gold International for $3.6 billion, the biggest mining deal in all of 2013.

There has been no shortage of significant gold M&A transactions so far this year, so here’s a closer look at some of the ones that caught the industry’s attention.

• Osisko/Agnico Eagle/Yamana. After a prolonged bidding war with Goldcorp, Agnico and Yamana emerged as official victors and new owners of the Canadian Malartic gold mine and Osisko’s other assets. From Yamana’s standpoint, the addition of a low-cost, cornerstone asset in Canada should help the stock get re-rated closer to its higher-multiple peers. For Agnico, the deal is accretive on all metrics. This strong operation with lots of upside potential will add significant cash flow to both companies over the coming years.
• Papillon/B2Gold. The deal has been characterized as a merger, but in reality it was more of a buyout, as BTG offered Papillon shareholders a 42% premium, the third-largest premium in all gold M&A year to date. Papillon’s primary asset is the Fekola project in Mali, a large, high-grade property that is now B2Gold’s next mine to be constructed.
• Sulliden Gold/Rio Alto. Rio Alto announced that it will acquire Sulliden Gold, which owns the Shahuindo project located only a few kilometers from Rio’s flagship La Arena gold and copper mine. Initial capex is currently estimated at $132 million. When the mine is operational, it’s expected to produce about 872,000 ounces of gold over a 10-year period. This deal ranks third based on all three valuation metrics: reported premium (43.4%); transaction value (US$318 million); and $/oz (US$78).
• Goldcorp and Barrick/Silver Standard. Silver Standard Resources paid $275 million for 100% ownership of the Marigold mine from its joint owners, Goldcorp (70%) and Barrick (30%). The open pit mine is located in Nevada and has been in operation since 1988, consistently producing over 140,000 ounces of gold per year at gold recoveries over 70%. Current reserves are estimated at 4.92 million ounces. Based on Marigold’s entire in situ resource, this deal comes in at $41/oz.

Looking at the data, gold M&A activity in 2013’s fourth quarter seemed to break the spell of three preceding quarters of decline in both deal value and deal volume, and the trend appears to have carried through into 2014.

Moreover, the first half of this year was shaped by developments that have been in sharp contrast to the lethargic M&A climate of 2013: the emergence of hostile bids (e.g., Aurizon, Osisko); a growing appetite for acquisitions on the part of private equity funds; and the rising number and volume of M&A transactions.