Australian listed copper miners Aeris Resources and 29Metals are believed to be vying for Glencore’s Cobar copper mine.
The CSA mine at Cobar in NSW is up for sale through Bank of America and UBS at a time that the copper price has been trading at strong levels in recent months.
29Metals – recently listed by the private equity firm EMR Capital – has a market value of about $1.3bn, while Aeris Resources, which is a diversified mining and exploration company that produces copper and gold, has a market value of about $445m.
Previously, Aeris Resources planned to buy the mine for $US575m, but terms could not be agreed.
It is believed that 29Metals could be working with Morgan Stanley on an acquisition. Its share price has soared since listing on the back of the strong copper price.
Sources have suggested that Cobar could be worth about $1bn.
CSA produces more than 1.1 million tonnes of copper ore and in excess of 185,000 tonnes of copper concentrate a year, which is exported to smelters in India, China and Southeast Asia.
Glencore tried to sell the CSA mine about five years ago to drive down debt but it then decided to retain the asset when there was a spike in commodity prices. Glencore earlier said the decision to potentially enter a sale process for CSA comes after offers to buy the mine.
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