Here's a good article on M&A. Sculpin, they had Exeter Resources Corp as one of their M&A picks. You've given us lots of info on that one. I sure like it when we compare them to us! Anyway, here's the article:

A team of Canaccord Genuity analysts led by Wendell Zerb, is predicting that merger and acquisition activity in the gold mining sector will soon pick up.

It has been all quiet on the merger front. But analysts at Canaccord Genuity are expecting to see an increase in gold sector merger and acquisition activity in the coming months, action that will be driven by strong fundamentals in the sector, the growing balance sheets of the producers, and the low relative valuations for the sector, they say.

"We continue to believe that select gold developers are likely to attract interest from potential acquirers; however, we also see potential for junior producers to attract acquisition bids, given the potential for a faster payback period on acquisition, the Canaccord analysts said in an update in the investment firm's Junior Mining Weekly.

In a period when gold producers are enjoying record margins, analyst Wendell Zerb said he would have expected to see more M&A activity in the gold sector, in part because the price of gold is up 25% year-to-date and the price of silver is up 34% in the same period.

But Zerb said activity has been limited by a number of factors, including conservative commodity price assumptions that companies typically use when they are looking at potential transactions, as well as a drop in the cut-off grades that miners use to calculate reserves.

"Given that many of the larger cap gold producers have not seen significant share price appreciations in 2011, in spite of the strong gold price environment, management may be reluctant to engage in M&A with what it views to be an undervalued share price, Zerb said.

"Regardless of the reason, M&A in the gold sector has been limited, he said.
However, for the reasons mentioned earlier, Canaccord analysts expect M&A activity to ramp up in the coming months.