Australia Zinc Miner CBH Says Gets Takeover Offer

SYDNEY, Mar. 12 -- Australia-listed zinc miner CBH Resources (CBH.AX: Quote) said on Friday it had received a takeover offer and analysts predicted the deal could involve a tie up with Greenland-focused Ironbark Zinc (IBG.AX: Quote).

Ironbark is 19.9 percent owned by Belgian metals group Nyrstar (NYR.BR: Quote), which recently failed in a bid to acquire CBH for A$148 million ($135.5 million), and analysts said the pending deal could be another attempt for Nyrstar to get involved with CBH.

"For Ironbark, with Nyrstar, to be looking at CBH makes sense," said Stephen Bartrop, portfolio manager for LimeStreet Capital. "There's a history there and Ironbark is still in development."

Both CHB, which mines zinc in Australia, and Ironbark, which is seeking funding to develop its Citronen zinc mine in northern Greenland, were placed on trading halt on Friday.

Andrew Pedler of Wilson HTM added: "The link may be Nyrstar, which has shown an interest in CBH in the past."

CBH spurned Nyrstar in January and instead sold its yet-to-be developed Rasp Zinc mine to Toho Zinc (5707.T: Quote), its largest shareholder with 23 percent, to raise cash.

CBH is reactivating equipment, idled in 2008 when zinc prices crashed, that will allow it to more than double ore production to 850,000 tonnes at its main Endeavor mine, yielding about 59,000 tonnes of zinc metal and 30,000 tonnes of lead.

Nyrstar, the world's biggest zinc producer, aims to increase production of the metal from its own mines to about 30 percent over the next year from 21 percent, its chief executive said on March 5.