Goldcorp - though it produces far less gold - once again bested Barrick Gold for the title of gold miner with the largest marketcap, if only by the slimmest of margins. Goldcorp eclipsed Barrick late last week and has held the top spot since then. At presstime the margin was tiny - a few hundred million dollars - but it is notable nonetheless at least for its symbolic value: Barrick's marketcap was C$21.6 billion versus Goldcorp's C$21.9 billion.

Of course the only prize for Goldcorp is the bragging right. But for the world's top gold producer - Barrick - and its management it has to bruise the egos somewhat to produce near three times Goldcorp ounces, but sit behind it in marketcap ranking. Barrick - as we recently noted - produced 7.2 million ounces gold in 2013 versus Goldcorp which produced 2.7 million ounces last year, making them respectively the first and fourth ranked gold producers in the world.