No wonder that Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, a big Brazilian iron-ore producer, is buying Inco, one of the two Canadian nickel firms gobbled up in recent deals.

ECONOMIST: How to make sense of the current plethora of mining deals

Last year Votorantim's caution proved a liability when it was outbid by an energetic rival in the privatisation of Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, a state-owned mining and transport giant.

ECONOMIST: Votorantim

Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (nyse: RIO - news - people ), which mines iron ore, nickel and copper, among other things, has risen seventeenfold since 2003.

FORBES: Latin Mining Via Toronto

Upstream producers such as Brazil's Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), the world's largest producer of iron ore and pellets, are trying to get into the business of making quality steel.

ECONOMIST: On a roll | The

Pangaro likes Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (nyse: RIO - news - people ), known as CVRD, a mining and metals giant that benefited from a 71% increase in iron ore prices last year and a 19% rise this year.

FORBES: Stepping South Of The Border