Profit from mining’s malaise

As mining flounders, it’s tempting to grab bargains – but with a mergers spree in the offing, snap up predators to bag the best gains. Alex Williams looks at the sector and picks the best stocks to buy now.

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The outlook for the mining industry could hardly be murkier. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, the giants of the sector, have both dropped by more than a third since the beginning of 2015, while trading giant Glencore has plunged with the price of copper, falling 85% since listing in London's biggest initial public offering in mid-2011. Anglo American, founded in 1917, has fared no better, overtaking Glencore as the worst-performing company in the FTSE 100 in 2015. Chief executive Mark Cutifani announced a "radical" restructuring last week, closing nearly two thirds of its operations and laying off 85,000 mine workers, enough to fill Wembley stadium.No-one, it seems, has been spared.

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