TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Shareholders in TSX-listed Centenario Copper on Tuesday voted in favour of a plan for copper/producer Quadra Mining to buy all the company's shares.

The special resolution approving the arrangement, in which Quadra will exchange 0,28 of one of its own shares for each Quadra share, was approved by 100% of the votes cast by holders of Centenario's common shares, the companies reported.

The transaction still requires approval by the Supreme Court of British Columbia and approval for the acquisition by Centenario's current lenders, but Quadra has agreed to waive requirements that Centenario's debt be restructured and its copper hedges closed out before the acquisition closes.

Quadra has agreed with the existing lenders that Centenario's copper hedge positions will be closed, and the proceeds used to pay down part of the existing facility, about $30-million, which will by fully repaid by May 8.

Once the court approval is received, and the existing lenders have given their approval – which they have indicated will be forthcoming – the arrangement will be completed as soon as possible, and in any event on or before April 16, the companies said.

Quadra agreed to buy Centenario in a friendly transaction, after the smaller firm ran out of funds to complete the construction and commissioning of its Franke copper project, in Chile.

The 70-million pounds a year Franke solvent-extraction/electrowinning heap-leach project is essentially mechanically completed, but, because of Centenario's cash shortages over the last few months, several core development milestones have been delayed.

Quadra operates two copper mines in the US - the Carlota operation in Arizona, where it started production in December last year, and the Robinson mine, in Nevada, which it bought from BHP Billiton and restarted in 2004.

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