Having cleared the anti-trust hurdle with the U.S. government, BHP (NYSE) is proceeding with its merger with Magma Copper (NYSE).
In early January, the Australian miner completed a tender offer for a majority of Magma’s outstanding shares. The shares represent 87% of the American copper producer.
Following the tender, BHP will acquire, at the same price of US$28 per share, all the remaining shares not offered in the tender.
The price tag for the merger will total US$2.4 billion.
The newly formed company, BHP Copper Group, will be headed by Magma’s president, Burgess Winter. It will be the second-largest producer of the red metal in the world.
Magma owns open-pit mines and a smelter-refinery near San Manuel, Ariz., the Robinson mine in Ely, Nev., and the Tintaya mine in Peru.
BHP owns controlling interests in the Escondida mine in Chile and the Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea, as well as the Coloso solvent
extraction-electrowinning facility, also in Chile.
BHP also owns two promising copper exploration targets: the Zaldivar project, near the Escondida, and the Agua Rica project, in Argentina.
It is estimated that production for the copper group will reach 900,000 tonnes in 1996.
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