Deals are being dug up in the commodities arena, defying the credit pressure that has choked off so much of the merger stream since the summer. Meridian Gold’s board has approved a raised bid from Yamana Gold, ending an extended and often hostile takeover battle. Yamana boosted the cash component of the offer by 50 Canadian cents to C$7.00 per share. Yamana will extend the offer to midnight Oct. 12. Yamana’s revised offer represents a spot premium of about 38 percent. The deal is one part of a three-way tie-up that Yamana is pursuing to create a mining company with gold production of 1 million ounces this year.

From Australia overnight came two commodity-related deals: Gindalbie Metals offered A$1.6 billion ($1.4 billion) for West African explorer Sundance Resources, and Orica, the world’s biggest explosives maker, agreed to buy Excel Mining Systems from U.S. private equity firm Snow Phipps Group for US$670 million. Iron ore miner George Jones, who is chairman of both Gindalbie and Sundance, has given his blessing to the Sundance deal, as has its largest shareholder, Australian mining magnate Ken Talbot’s Talbot Group Holdings, which has 19.9 percent. 
    
This month, Australian iron ore miner Territory Resources watched its cash and share offer for manganese producer Consolidated Minerals dissolve as an all-cash battle between two private groups — Pallinghurst Resources in Britain and Palmary Enterprises in Belize — for Consolidated went from around A$500 million to A$1 billion. With analysts predicting that the prices mining companies charge steel mills for iron ore are set to rise for a sixth straight year, iron ore has become a sought-after commodity. Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton are both spending billions of dollars to expand production in the iron ore-rich Pilbara region in Australia, near the mid-west region deposits held by Gindalbie.
    
Orica, the world’s biggest explosives maker, said the acquisition of Excel, which makes roof support products for underground mines, would be immediately earnings per share accretive and was complementary to the UK mining services business Minova that it bought in 2006. Orica said earlier this month it sees significant profit growth this year, with a global mining boom, driven largely by strong demand for minerals from China, boosting earnings at its mining services division. 
    
China Eastern Airlines hit turbulence in Hong Kong on Monday after the Wall Street Journal reported that the fate of a Singapore Airlines stake purchsae was up in the air. It reported that Cathay Pacific Airways is also seeking to take a piece of the Chinese carrier. But by the end of trade in Hong Kong, with no deal announced, investors had cashed out of China Eastern, selling it down 10.5 percent. Cathay and Air China said they would release statements later on Monday to clarify the situation. CLSA analyst Adrian Lowe said a China Eastern investment was unlikely, arguing instead that Cathay and Air China might be on the brink of announcing an asset or share swap. Speculation in recent days has ranged from a potential bidding war between the Cathay and SIA camps to a government-led takeover of China Eastern. 
    
The Deal Journal offers this take on the winners and losers in the Harman International Industries drama. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Goldman Sachs Group’s private-equity arm said on Friday they would walk away from their $8 billion buyout agreement for the audio-equipment maker.
    
Investor demand for leveraged loans and bonds has improved, Bloomberg News said, sourcing Bank of America analysts. Their research showed banks had reduced the backlog of unsold corporate debt by 2 percent in the past two weeks to $370 billion. “The door creaks slowly open in credit markets,” strategists led by Jeffrey Rosenberg said in a research note. “Clearly credit conditions have improved.”