Wheaton finally gets the right partner!

Wheaton River Minerals (WHT) , a Canadian gold miner, agreed to be acquired by GoldCorp (GG). This brings an end to a very confusing number of merger/takeover attempts over the last year or so.

Wheaton earlier got a hostile takeover bid from Coeur d'Alene (CDE), which Wheaton's shareholders rejected. Iamgold (IAG) made an offer for Wheaton next, but Iamgold's shareholder voted against it. Iamgold itself is attempting a merger with Gold Fields (GFI), while Gold Fields got a hostile takeover bid from Harmony Gold (HMY)! If that doesn't give you a headache, then I bet the coming months' action among gold/silver miners will surely do.

I listed Wheaton among my early hits since I sold off after the surge following the first takeover attempt.

I own shares of quite a few small gold/silver players, including

• Coeur d'Alene Mines (CDE)
  
• Bema Gold (BGO)
  
• Durban Roodeport Deep (DROOY)
  
• Hecla Mining (HL)
  
• Apex Silver Mines (SIL)
  
• Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS)
  
• Harmony Gold (HMY)
  
• Newmont Mining (NEM)

Some of these are just hedges against a falling dollar and a slowing US economy, while the smaller ones are takeover targets as gold retakes its position as a "hard" asset as the dollar depreciates.