Everyone is hungry for more copper. Let the takeovers begin as the price of copper continues to rise. All we need now is multi-million ounce deposit at Reed and we are money (literally)
* Lundin says expects Equinox bid by Monday's open
* Lundin has already agreed to combine with Inmet
* Rivals bids likely to emerge - lawyer
* Surging copper, metals prices spurring deals(Adds M&A lawyer comment, background)
SYDNEY/TORONTO, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Copper miner Equinox Mineralsplans to make a bid for Canada's Lundin Mining , a move that couldscuttle a proposed C$9 billion tie-up between Lundin and Inmet Mining and kickoff a bidding war for the base metal miner.
With copper prices trading near record highs and supplies short, the sectoris hot, and there has even been speculation that Australian- and Canadian-listedEquinox itself might make a good takeover target for global miner Rio Tinto.
Lundin, valued at $3.8 billion, said on Sunday it had been advised thatEquinox plans to make an unsolicited takeover bid before markets inCanada open on Monday.
Equinox is a Zambia-focused copper miner, while Lundin operates copper, zincand nickel mines in Europe and has a 24.75 percent stake in Freeport-McMoRan'smassive Tenke-Fungurume copper-cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic ofCongo.
The proposed bid comes just over a month after Lundin and Inmet Mining Corp, a copper miner with operations in Spain, Turkey and Finland, agreed tocombine and create a new Canadian copper mining major called Symterra, worthabout C$9 billion ($9.2 billion).
Analysts said at the time of the merger announcement that Lundin wasessentially putting itself in play, and Equinox's move on Monday came as nosurprise.
"Given that the proposed merger between Lundin and Inmet was billed as a'merger of equals' with no premium equated to either company and no anticipatedfuture cost savings from the merger, another bidder which could demonstratebetter synergies and cost rationalizations was bound to appear," said DarrylLevitt, a mergers and acquisitions lawyer with Macleod Dixon in Toronto.
"I do not think that the bidding process will stop here," he said.
Global demand for copper and other base metals is rising worldwide, drivenlargely by China's growing need for imported metal to supplement its ownsupplies.
London Metal Exchange (LME) copper for three-month delivery shot up$245 or 2.6 percent to close at $9,750 a tonne on Friday, trading just short ofa record high hit earlier this month at $10,190. It has risen more than a thirdin the past year.
Toronto-based Lundin was part of one of the most notable failed Canadianmining transactions in recent years, when HudBay Mineralsunsuccessfully tried to acquire it in the midst of the resource market crash inlate 2008.
HudBay shareholders bristled at the deal, and eventually overthrew itsmanagement after a proxy battle.