A monumental effort by analysts at the Australian-based bank, the 45-page report is designed to pick the best 11 mining assets in the world regardless of their owner and while timed to coincide with the football World Cup it also notes that there is a significant change underway in mining, a shift from contraction to expansion.

Based on a four-way business-values model used by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) the fantasy mining game puts mines under the categories of cash cows, stars, non-core and question mark, with some assets overlapping.

"We have assembled … the top 11 mining assets globally, which we believe any mining chief executive would be very pleased to have in their squad," Macquarie said.

"The assets include a good balance between cash cows an...