Mining Corporate M&A: Deal Drivers, Valuations, and Acquirer Strategy Through 2026

Global mining M&A volume roughly doubled year-on-year in 2025 to about $52.7 billion, with copper and gold accounting for the dominant share of deal value as majors pursued inorganic reserve replacement in the absence of large-scale discoveries. Gold acquisition premiums have settled in the 35 to 45% range on P/NAV multiples near 0.7x, while copper assets with established infrastructure have transacted at materially higher multiples reflecting supply-security urgency. All-stock structures have become the default for transactions above $3 billion, preserving acquirer balance-sheet flexibility for post-close capital deployment. The report sets out the commodity-specific valuation benchmarks and deal conventions of 2025 and assesses which combinations are most plausible in 2026 given reserve inventories, price assumptions, and regulatory risk.