Aeris Resources Ltd. acknowledged on Wednesday that it intends to acquire the CSA mine in New South Wales from Glencore Plc. Reacting to media speculation, the company claimed talks are in a "late stage" and that "associated documents are ongoing but are yet to be finalized."
The copper miner added it offered $575 million of which $50 million is in its shares together with royalties. Funding for the underground facility is yet to be defined, but The Tritton operator said it is looking at a mix of debt, between $250 million and $300 million, new equity, $185 million to $240 million, and silver stream, between $35 million and $40 million.
"Aeris is in late stage discussions with major shareholder Special Portfolio Opportunity V Limited, a subsidiary of a fund managed by PAG, Orion Mine Finance and others. The equity component of the raising is being managed by RBC Capital Markets and Macquarie Capital," it revealed in the announcement. The bid is several times higher than the company's market capitalization. CSA has a capacity of 1.1 million tons of copper ore and 185,000 of concentrate per annum.
