Goldcorp eclipses Barrick by market cap

Goldcorp is in the sweet-spot of what investors are looking for, it's kinda like a Goldilocks, said Joung Park, a mining analyst at Morningstar.

It's big, so it's a little more stable than some of the junior miners, but it still has the growth profile of a junior or mid-tier miner.

Goldcorp's newest mine, the Pueblo Viejo joint venture with Barrick in the Dominican Republic, is set for commercial production by the end of this year. Goldcorp plans to bring three more major projects into production through 2014, which will substantially increase its annual output.

Toronto-based Barrick, by comparison, plans a modest boost in output to 8 million ounces a year by 2016.

Despite the fact that Barrick is spending billions constructing mega-gold projects, we believe they will have trouble achieving net growth, said Adam Graf, a mining analyst with Dahlman Rose in New York.

They have a much larger production base to build from, so on a percentage basis, it's a bigger challenge to grow. Also, Barrick has many older mines that are coming to the end of their natural lives, or are fighting lower ore grades to stay operating.

That means ounces from Barrick's new mines will go towards replacing those being lost at older projects.

Of 24 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, 18 rank Goldcorp as a Buy or Strong Buy, with five Holds and one Underperform.

Out of a total of 29 analysts, Barrick has

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