Of the 2,600 mining deals made globally in 2011 valued at $149 billion, Australian miners accounted for 22 per cent of market value making them the most acquisitive last year, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) released on Monday said.

Besides Australia, the other nations that dominated mining deals in 2011 were the U.S. and Canada, which jointly accounted for 53 per cent of acquisitions made. Their share rose from 46 per cent the previous year.

However, the bulk of the acquisitions made by Australian mining firms were done locally. Australia is declining as a popular destination for inbound acquisition due to competition from new opportunities in developing countries such those in the African and Latin American continents. The latter topped the list followed by the former with 122 mining projects purchased in 2011 by Western groups.

Jock O'Callaghan, the energy, utilities and mining leader of PwC, pointed out that acquisitions in growth markets grew from less than 1 per cent at the start of the millennium to almost 25 per cent in value and 20 per cent in volume.

"Many developed world miners operate within regulatory and financial constraints that prevent them from fully capitalising on opportunities in growth markets," The Bull.com.au quoted Mr O'Callaghan.

"While a myriad of risks may make it more costly to transact in high risk, high growth regions... in the long term, it may be even more costly not to transact," he said.

He forecast that in 2012 many mining firms would take decisive steps forward with their growth market strategies or face harder decisions to regain ground in the coming years. The PwC report foresees Africa overtaking Latin America as the new global hot spot for resources.

He added this year would probably register record-high merger and acquisition volumes and value especially if the $90-bllion deal between Glencore and Xstrata would push through as the largest mining transaction in global history.

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