RE: Corriente in exclusive talksTORONTO, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Shares of Corriente Resources (CTQ.TO) shot up more than 10 percent on Tuesday after the metals explorer said it was in exclusive talks with a third party to sell itself.
Corriente, which is based in Vancouver, British Columbia, but explores for copper in Ecuador, did not identify the third party.
But two senior Ecuadorean government officials said they were told by the company last week that the most likely buyers were Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata (XTA.L) and China's Tongling Nonferrous Metals 000630.SZ.
Executives from both companies visited Ecuador earlier this year to analyze investment in Corriente's Panantza-San Carlos project, the officials told Reuters on Tuesday.
"Corriente executives told us they narrowed their focus to one of the two companies," said one of the mining officials, who asked not to be named because he was not allowed to speak publicly. "We don't know who the final buyer is yet."
Corriente began talks to sell some of its key assets earlier this year, and said on Tuesday it had expanded the talks to involve the sale of the entire company.
Its stock rose 37 Canadian cents to C$3.89 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Corriente said the exclusive negotiation period would extend to March 31, 2009, and that no assurance could be given that the company will be sold.
The Panantza-San Carlos project has inferred resources of 14.4 billion pounds of copper and Corriente has said it will cost about $1.3 billion to develop.
Corriente and a handful of other foreign exploration companies in Ecuador have been looking for partners or buyers after losing millions in market capital when President Rafael Correa banned mining operations in April while a new mining law was drafted.
Aurelian Resources, which owns the Fruta Del Norte gold project, was bought earlier this year by Kinross Gold (K.TO).