It appears the bidding war for Noront Resources is not over after another significant counter offer has been received.
Noront Resources, the company that owns the rights to the Ring of Fire mineral deposits in northern Ontario, has received another offer from Wyloo Metals two months after another rival Australia-based company's last bid.
In a news release Tuesday, Noront said "it has settled an arrangement agreement" with Wyloo Metals for a 47 per cent increase to BHP Western Mining Resources' October offer of C$0.75 per share.
Wyloo is now offering C$1.10 per share, a 358 per cent increase to Noront's unaffected closing price on May 21.
BHP has five days to match Wyloo's newest offer under the current agreement. Should the Wyloo bid be successful, "Wyloo Metals has also agreed to provide a loan to Noront of up to C$29.38 million to finance, among other things, the termination payment of C$17.78 million payable to BHP upon the termination of the Support Agreement, as well as other transaction-related costs."
Wyloo currently holds 37.2 per cent of Noront's outstanding common shares while BHP owns 3.7 per cent of Noront shares on a "fully diluted basis."
The bidding to take over the northern Ontario company began in July with BHP's first offer of C$0.55, which was countered by Wyloo's first offer of C$0.70 on Oct. 19, followed by BHP's counteroffer of C$0.75 the next day.
The last offer from BHP for 75 cents was recommended by the Noront board of directors. For that bid to succeed, "at least 50 per cent of the shares not owned by BHP" needed to be tendered at the offer price, the company said in a news release on Oct. 20.
The percentage tendered to date has not been disclosed, a media relations spokesperson told CTV News in an email on Tuesday,
The Ring of Fire development, located in the James Bay lowlands, is expected to take many years, with remote infrastructure still required. It contains mineral deposits of nickel, copper, platinum, palladium and chromite.
