This time last year Canada’s Lundin Mining was on the sale block. Now the $C3 billion ($2.9 billion) miner has returned to looking for growth, and two Australian juniors exploring for copper in Chile appear to feature prominently in its plans.

At the start of the week, Lundin picked up a big parcel of shares in Hot Chili from Panoramic Resources . The stake should push Lundin past the 5 per cent substantial shareholder threshold, although Hot Chili is yet to make an announcement to that effect.