Two former members of the Reno gold mining fraternity--now the CEOs, respectively, of Goldcorp and Andean Resources--may have trumped Eldorado Gold's recently announced C$3.4 billion (US$3.2 billion) all- share bid for Andean with a more lucrative Cdn$3.6 billion (US$3.4 billion) cash or shares white knight bid by Goldcorp.

The prize is Andean Resources' Cerro Negro gold project in the Santa Cruz project of Argentina. Cero Negro has reported indicated resources of 2.54 million ounces of gold and 23.56 million ounces of silver. The project is currently at the feasibility stage.

As Eldorado announced it would hold a conference call today to discuss its proposal to Andean Resources (TSX, ASX: AND) Goldcorp swooped in the wee hours of Friday and bested Eldorado's bid.

Eldorado proposes offering 0.310 of an Eldorado share for each Andean ordinary share, which Eldorado claimed in a Thursday news release is "a friendly transaction support by the majority of the Andean Directors."

However, Eldorado CEO Paul Wright may not have taken into account the Reno roots of Goldcorp CEO Chuck Jeannes, a former Glamis Gold executive, and Andean CEO Wayne Hubert, a former Meridian Gold executive. A decade or so ago, Glamis and Meridian were the only intermediate gold producers headquartered in Reno and often worked together on issues involving the Nevada Mining Association.

Goldcorp's more lucrative offer apparently has the backing of Hubert who announced in the Goldcorp news release issued late Friday "The Andean Board of Directors strongly believes that the shareholders of both parties will benefit from this business combination well into the future."

Eoin Treacy's view From a stock market perspective Goldcorp and Eldorado represent two different facets of the industry. One is a well established large cap producer while the other has a smaller but appreciating market cap and offers more leverage to rising gold prices. Both are highly successful explorers in their own right and but are also actively seeking to increase their average reserve lives through acquisitions of promising targets.

Goldcorp has tended to mirror the performance of the NYSE Arca Goldbugs Index where it holds the second largest weighting at 14.5%. It retested the upper side of the more than yearlong range this week. A sustained move above C$50 would indicate a return to medium-term bullish dominance.

Eldorado Gold at 4.5% of the Goldbugs Index remains in an impressive medium-term uptrend and broke upwards to new high ground last week. While the share is somewhat overbought in the short term, a sustained move below C$16 would be required to question medium-term upside potential. (Also see Comment of the Day on August 20th).