Barrick (NYSE:ABX), Newmont (NYSE:NEM) and Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) to Become Next Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX)?

It's instructive to watch the major gold miners like Barrick Gold (NYSE:ABX), Newmont Mining (NYSE:NEM), Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) and Kinross (NYSE:KGC) make acquisitions, as it tells a story of where the current gold mining industry is going, at least with the larger companies.

One thing to consider is because the gold price is high and economic conditions ripe for it to continue to rise, we hear the focus of the miners primarily on gold.

But in the background they've been quietly buying up properties, while which including gold, also have a lot of secondary metals included with the acquisitions.

The gold miners will continue to rise in share price, but the question in the back of a lot of investors' minds over the long term is what happens after the prices end their run.

Answers to that question are obvious, and the gold mining companies are starting to act more like a company like Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) than pure gold miners, even though they're positioning themselves primarily as gold companies in the current economic environment.

Interestingly, Freeport gets a lower valuation than Barrick Gold, and is just ahead of Newmont and Goldcorp in market value.

That shows the premium being placed on gold at this time by investors, and that will remain that way until the gold bull market runs it course, which could easily be several years into the future, or more, depending on the actions of central banks and governments around the world; especially the Federal Reserve in the U.S.

An amazing part of this is the major gold miners, by investing in a diverse amount of metals, will become better companies, but could lose market value because they won't be considered pure gold miners any longer.

This probably won't happen anytime soon, but once the bull market is over, we'll probably see the miners named above, and others, position themselves as base metals companies, or if a particular metal or metals are hot at that time, as whatever that metal may be ... such as copper, etc.

We'll probably see a much stronger metals market at that time, and increased and more robust competition as the demand for metals soars as emerging market middle classes increase their expendable income.