New Delhi: The mining sector attracted merger and acquisition activity to the tune of $153.4 billion through as many as 1,668 deals in 2008, global consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers says.

According to the annual review by PricewaterhouseCoopers of the global mining sector M&A activity, 2008 proved to be a year of extremes. Commodity prices soared to record highs only to fall precipitously as the financial crisis intensified and economic conditions deteriorated.

The mining deal volumes in 2008, however, represent a dip of 4% from its previous year figure largely due to the global economic crisis in the third quarter of the year 2008.

“The total value of deals in the final three months of 2008 fell 61% sliding down toward the quarterly level last seen in 2005. Average deal value more than halved, falling from $119 million in Q3 to $53 million in Q4,” the survey added.

Elaborating on the current economic situation, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ India Leader for energy, utilities and mining Kameswara Rao said: “We see a unique environment that will reshape much of the sectors ownership.”

He said that the rapid decline in commodity and equity prices, combined with the financing constraints with the global credit crisis, has left the sector polarised between the strong and the weak.