Among the many investment pontificators you will find in the media, I pride myself on laying everything out on the table, good calls, bad calls and even my unfortunate periodic stupidity. All of my 2008 picks are down to a varying degree, making me look none too smart in the opening weeks of the year.

Among the stocks I like, Anglo Amercican PLC (NASDAQ: AAUK) has gone down from the $30 level where I recommended it to around $25 a share today. Its 52-week low is $23.38, and its high was $38.75. It pays a dividend currently yielding about 2%.

Early this morning, this was reported: Anglo American Enters Into Exclusive Discussions To Acquire Control Of The MMX Minas-Rio And MMX Amapa Iron Ore Projects. AAUK is a partial owner now and seeks full control of these Brazilian copper mines. Under the leadership of Cynthia Carroll, who became chief executive of Anglo American, it has been refocusing its business structure, planning sales of its building material division Tarmac for $6 billion, while it has also been reducing its stake in gold miner AngloGold Ashanti.

There has been a push to get big in copper, and all of the news out of South America supports this theme. Meanwhile MarketWatch reported China now world's largest gold producer; foreign miners at door. China is now producing more gold than South Africa, which has been the top producer since 1905.

I cannot get in the heads of AAUK management, but perhaps they believe that the growth of the gold mining business in China will impact gold prices, and they want to sell while the precious commodity is at record highs. Anglo has not abandoned expensive commodities altogether, maintaining major interests in diamonds and platinum.

When Anglo American touched its high last year, there were talks it could be a target of industry consolidation. This is another subject that is hard to get a handle on but if the share price remains low, it seems reasonable to assume that this noise will become louder again.

DISCLOSURE: We currently own shares of AAUK.

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research n architecture & planning firm.