Lundin Mining, BHP weighing joint bid for copper miner Filo Corp, sources say

By Clara Denina and Anirban Sen

TORONTO/NEW YORK (Reuters) -Canada's Lundin Mining Corp and mining giant BHP Group are weighing a potential joint bid for Filo Corp, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

The talks between Lundin and BHP are at an early stage, the sources said, adding that there is no guarantee that the two companies will team up on a bid for Filo.

Canada-listed shares of Filo jumped as much as 12% on the news on Friday. The shares pared some gains and closed at C$27.98, giving the company a market capitalization of C$3.44 billion ($2.52 billion).

The consideration for a possible takeover comes as there is ongoing work to merge the Josemaria project that belongs to Lundin Mining with the Filo del Sol project, one of the sources said, adding that combining the infrastructure between the mines would cost between $5 billion to $8 billion. The sources requested anonymity as the discussions are confidential.

The Lundin family holds a 32% stake in copper miner Filo Corp, while BHP holds a 6% stake in the company, according to recent regulatory filings and LSEG data. Filo is focussed on building the Filo del Sol project in the Chile-Argentina border.

Lundin, BHP and Filo Corp did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The deal deliberations come weeks after BHP walked away from a blockbuster $49 billion bid to take over Anglo American, which rejected three proposed offers from its bigger rival over the course of six weeks.

The world's biggest miners are increasingly preferring to buy instead of building assets to grow, given rising costs for developing new mines and a blow-out in timelines for regulatory approvals.

The copper industry is expected to witness consolidation in the near term, as the world's biggest miners are attempting to increase access to a metal central to the global shift towards clean energy and electric vehicles, according to analysts.

Bloomberg News reported earlier on Friday that Lundin had pitched BHP on a joint bid for Filo.

($1 = 1.3634 Canadian dollars)

(Additional reporting by Divya Rajagopal in Toronto and Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Josie Kao)