Equinox Minerals offers $4.9b for Lundin

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SYDNEY, Feb 28 (Internet): Equinox Minerals Ltd. said Monday it will offer 4.8 billion Canadian dollars ($4.91 billion) in cash and shares to take over Lundin Mining Corp. in a hostile bid that could derail Lundin's planned C$9 billion merger with Inmet Mining Corp. Equinox, which produces around 110,000 tons a year of copper concentrates from its Lumwana mine in the southern African country of Zambia, said that the offer represented a 26 per cent premium to the closing price of Lundin's shares in Toronto on Friday. Mr. Williams said that the takeover could raise the copper production of the combined group to 500,000 metric tons a year by 2016, enough to overtake the current production of major miners of the commodity including Antofagasta PLC and Teck Resources Ltd.