Hi Robert,
EVN is currently a $6.2bn gold and copper miner, interestingly a very similar size to OZ Minerals when BHP Group purchased the copper miner in 2023 hence its is relevant to their business unlike most lithium alternatives that people hope will find themselves under the M&A microscope. There is plenty of speculation that copper is a commodity that will be in shortage moving forward while gold was in the cross hairs last year when Newmont (NEM US) purchased Newcrest (NCM) hence a bid for EVN certainly cannot be discounted.
We believe EVN is a quality business enduring a share price lull hence it may be of interest to other gold &/or copper producers but its not the reason MM increased our position from 3% to 5% this week, that was purely a valuation move following the stocks ~25% dip plus we remain bullish towards both copper & gold medium term, any M&A move would be simply icing on the cake.