SYDNEY/LONDON — January is a great time for bargain hunting, and mining mergers should be no different.That is particularly the case after the sector’s lacklustre performance last year. Across all sectors, mergers and acquisitions during the 12 months totalled a record $3.7-trillion, as Gadfly’s Tara Lachapelle notes, but the $65bn-odd in mining deals made 2015 the second-weakest year for that industry since 2005. The average premium paid — 41% — was more consistent with a booming market than one in the doldrums.Things may be about to change, if you’re persuaded by the strategy being pushed by analysts at Bank of America. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto should sell as much as $21bn in new shares to strengthen their balance sheets and snare funds to pick up high-quality assets at discount prices, they wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. The only problem is, a glance at the mining assets that may be worth purchasing suggests shelves as bare as a Brezhnev-era Soviet Union supermarket.T...
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