Gold mining CEOs have for long enunciated the merits of greater consolidation of the gold mining industry, which needs at least to replace every ounce of gold that it mines with another ounce of unmined gold. The merging of very large and fairly large companies brings about consolidation far more meaningfully and opens the way for the enlarged merged entity to acquire high-quality single-mine producers. The coming together of Barrick and Randgold Resources and the mirroring of that by Newmont and Goldcorp have created two new platforms intent on acquiring the best of the rest and disposing of lesser-quality assets to bottom feeders.