US-based Newmont Mining is poised to become the world's largest gold miner after winning the takeover battle for Australia's Normandy Mining against South Africa's AngloGold.

The two companies' fierce four-month-long takeover battle was brought to an end when AngloGold threw in the towel.

AngloGold's final bid valued Normandy at A$4.44bn ($2.26bn), compared with Newmont's A$4.56bn.

"The competing bidder has seen more value in the Normandy assets than we were able to identify reliably and therefore made a higher offer," said AngloGold chief executive Bobby Godsell.

"We gave the bid our very best effort," he said.

AngloGold scraped together just 7.1% of Normandy for its offer, which expired on Friday.

Normandy, Australia's largest gold producer, is prized for its Kalgoorlie Super Pit gold mine.

Not over yet

Newmont has now leapfrogged the South African group to take the number one spot in gold mining.

It could take at least one month for Newmont to finally acquire Normandy as it has to win over Franco-Nevada shareholders and a second vote from Normandy shareholders.

From the very start Newmont had been the preferred bidder of Normandy's board and Franco-Nevada Mining of Canada, Normandy's largest shareholder with a 20% stake.

Newmont is offering US$2.58bn in shares to buy out the Franco-Nevada stake.

The offer closes on 15 February.