Lundin Mining has made numerous proposals to Nevsun, beginning in February. “Our offer will represent the clearest path for Lundin Mining to acquire the Timok project and for Nevsun shareholders to realize on the value of their investment without dilution and financing risk,” Paul Conibear, president and CEO of Lundin Mining, said. “We believe that the proposed Nevsun acquisition consideration is full and fair value and represents a significant premium to Nevsun’s unaffected share price prior to the announcement of our first proposal.”

However, Nevsun released a statement saying it felt the offer ignored the “fundamental value” of Nevsun. “Despite the progress we have made in enhancing Nevsun’s value, Lundin’s notional takeover offer represents only a 13% premium to Nevsun’s closing trading price of C$4.21 per share on the TSX on July 16, 2018, and only a 9.1% premium to the volume weighted average trading price of Nevsun’s shares over the 30 days ended July 16, 2018,” said Peter Kukielski, Nevsun’s president and CEO.

He added that Lundin has ignored the recent improvements at Bisha mine, the new Timok Lower Zone and progress at the Timok Upper Zone project. “The work we have been doing has also been noticed by several strategic parties that have expressed an interest in participating in the development of Timok,” Kukielski added. Nevsun’s Board of Directors unanimously recommended that shareholders reject the bid. They said the offer failed to recognize the value of Nevsun’s portfolio, provides an “inadequate premium” for control, is lower in value than previous transactions proposed by Lundin, and is lower in value than other alternatives.