BHP bids for Australian metals miner WMC

Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton Ltd. has offered $7.3 billion in cash for Australian metals miner WMC Resources Ltd. on Tuesday, topping a spurned $6.5 billion bid from Swiss-based Xstrata PLC.

The WMC board said in a joint statement with BHP that it had unanimously recommended the offer in the absence of a higher bid.

If successful, the takeover bid will give BHP Billiton control of two of the world’s four largest copper deposits and establish the company — already the world’s largest miner — as a major producer of uranium.

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But BHP’s offer could entice offers from rivals such as Rio Tinto PLC, which had been expected to make a counteroffer after the federal government last month gave permission under its foreign ownership regulations for Xstrata to buy WMC.

WMC is a metals miner that holds significant copper and nickel deposits, and almost 40 percent of the world’s known uranium resources at its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia state.

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BHP’s offer is worth $6.22 a share, and is 85 cents a share higher than Xstrata’s cash bid of $5.55 per share, which the WMC board previously rejected saying it was too low.

The proposed deal for WMC Resources “is a further step in BHP Billiton’s strategy of developing, operating and maximizing the performance of large scale, long-life, low cost assets,” BHP Billiton Chief Executive Chip Goodyear said in the statement.

He said the proposed takeover would provide BHP Billiton with “premium long-term options to satisfy continuing demand growth in China and other high-growth economies” for base metals.