Build or buy talk is back in the mining sector as the disposals and unbundlings of the majors cause the ears of potentially acquisitive companies to prick up. Under intense discussion is the use of exploration budgets to purchase rather than put up. While Randgold Resources CEO Mark Bristow, for example, has traditionally been a protagonist of building rather than buying, Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland last week spoke in favour of buying rather than building and dispensing with greenfields notions in toto. In the main, Harmony Gold, under former CEO Bernard Swanepoel, for long favoured buying rather than building, while incumbent Harmony CEO Graham Briggs speaks glowingly about the company’s Papua New Guinea build roll-out. The operational review of Barrick Gold and Newmont, along with the fallout from other disposers, has many eyes being turned away from exploration risk towards up-and-running alternatives. Once again, the pendulum is swinging.