The US metals & mining industry saw a drop of 22.9% in overall deal activity during Q4 2019, when compared with the last four-quarter average, according to GlobalData’s deals database.

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A total of 37 deals worth $3.74bn were announced in Q4 2019, compared to the last four-quarter average of 48 deals.

M&A was the leading category in the quarter with 32 deals which accounted for 86.5% of all deals.

In second place was venture financing with four deals, followed by private equity with one transactions, respectively accounting for 10.8% and 2.7% of overall deal activity in the country’s metals & mining industry during the quarter.

In terms of value of deals, M&A was the leading deal category in the US metals & mining industry with total deals worth $3.73bn, while private equity deals totalled $7.14m.

The US metals & mining industry deals in Q4 2019: Top deals

The top five metals & mining deals accounted for 99.5% of the overall value during Q4 2019.

The combined value of the top five metals & mining deals stood at $3.72bn, against the overall value of $3.74bn recorded for the month.

The top five metals & mining industry deals of Q4 2019 tracked by GlobalData were:

1) Cleveland-Cliffs‘ $3bn acquisition of AK Steel Holding

2) The $700m acquisition of Big River Steel LLC (Steel DevelopmentLLC) by United States Steel

3) Barrian Mining’s $7.5m asset transaction with Liberty Gold

4) The $4.71m asset transaction with Oracle Ridge Mining by Eagle Mountain Mining

5) Getchell Gold’s asset transaction with Canarc Resources for $4m.

Verdict deals analysis methodology

This analysis considers only announced and completed deals from the GlobalData financial deals database and excludes all terminated and rumoured deals. Country and industry are defined according to the headquarters and dominant industry of the target firm. The term ‘acquisition’ refers to both completed deals and those in the bidding stage.

GlobalData tracks real-time data concerning all merger and acquisition, private equity/venture capital and asset transaction activity around the world from thousands of company websites and other reliable sources.

More in-depth reports and analysis on all reported deals are available for subscribers to GlobalData’s deals database.