Australia’s Fortescue to buy remaining stake in Alta Copper, valuing it at $101 million

Dec 15 (Reuters) – Australia’s Fortescue said on Monday it would buy the remaining 64% of Alta Copper, in a deal implying a total equity value of C$139 million ($101 million) for the Toronto-listed copper miner.

Fortescue, through its unit Nascent Exploration, is offering C$1.40 per share in cash for the shares in Alta that it does not already own.

The offer price represents a 14.8% premium to Alta’s closing price on Friday.

The deal comes as Fortescue, the world’s fourth-largest iron ore miner, looks to expand in copper, which has hit record highs in recent trading as demand for the metal is forecast to soar.

Other large miners including Fortescue’s iron ore rivals BHP Group and Rio Tinto are also looking to raise their exposure to copper to diversify their portfolios.

Alta Copper fully owns the Canariaco copper project in northern Peru, with a reported mineral resource of 1.1 billion metric tons at 0.42% copper equivalent grade and 0.9 billion tons at 0.29%.

Shares of Fortescue were down 0.8% in early trading, in line with the broader Australian mining sub-index’s fall.  

($1 = 1.3762 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Nichiket Sunil in Bengaluru; Editing by Nia Williams, Chris Reese and Jamie Freed)