Chinese company bidding for Equinox

Monday, 4 April 2011 Minmetals Resources of China has announced plans for an offer to buy Equinox Minerals, owner of the Lumwana copper, gold and uranium project in Zambia. Toronto-based Equinox has confirmed that Minmetals has announced its intention to make an unsolicited offer to purchase all of the company's outstanding common shares for C$7.0 ($7.2) each. Equinox's flagship project is the Lumwana copper mine in Zambia, which also has 3800 tU of indicated uranium resources at 0.079%U and 2570 tU of inferred resources. Plans for a 770 tU per year uranium processing plant were put on hold for economic reasons in January 2009, and uranium is currently being mined and stockpiled. Equinox says it is still attempting to secure uranium offtake agreements and project capital financing for the uranium plant, which it estimates would take 18 to 24 months to build.