Glencore offers to buy 27-% stake in Minara

Global commodities trader Glencore has offered A$270 for rest of Minara Resources that it does not own. Glencore which has a 73-per cent stake in Minara, has set 10 October as the closing date for the offer.

The 87 Australian cents a share offer - a 35.9-per cent premium to Minara's share price yesterday values the mining company at A$1.02 billion, Glencore said in a statement.

Minara Resources, Australia's second largest nickel miner, operates the Murrin nickel mine in Western Australia, which has a designed yield more than 40,000MT annually.  

Nickel finds application in the making of stainless steel and other corrosion resistant alloys.

Nickel prices have fallen steeply this year and the metal is now trading around $20,600 a tonne, down from $29,281 a tonne in February.

Glencore, the world's leading integrated producers and marketers of commodities, is headquartered in Baar, Switzerland, and is listed in London and Hong Kong.
 
Meanwhile, Minara has advised shareholders to not take any action until it reviewed the offer.

Minara set production target of between 33,000 and 37,000MT of nickel in 2011, second to BHP Billiton's Nickel West division.

The miner which is using untested leaching technology to glean nickel from ore at Murrin Murrin has not yet reached design production levels.