Lundin Mining, the Canadian owner of the Galmoy mine which agreed to be acquired by Inmet Mining, has rejected Equinox Minerals’s 4.2 billion Canadian dollar (€3 billion) unsolicited rival takeover bid as too low.

Equinox’s offer represents an inadequate takeover premium. Moreover, the Australian company would be burdened with too much debt to finance the acquisition, Toronto-based Lundin indicated yesterday in a statement. The all-stock bid from Inmet, also based in Toronto, values the copper and zinc mining group at 3.59 billion Canadian dollars. Equinox and Inmet are battling to acquire Lundin’s stake in a copper and cobalt venture in the Democratic Republic of Congo and four mines in Europe as the absence of new projects forces miners to expand through acquisitions. – (Bloomberg)