LSE-listed Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC) has decided not to make an offer for fellow Kazakh miner Kazakhmys “at the current time”, the firm said in a statement on Tuesday.

Kazakhmys said last week that it had rejected an inidicative and nonbinding letter from ENRC, which proposed to pay Kazakhmys shareholders 1 022p in cash and 0,413 ENRC shares for every Kazakhmys share.

Eurasian first said in March that one of the possibilities it was considering was a merger with Kazakhmys, after which Kazakhmys applied for and received a ruling from the UK Takeover Panel, instructing ENRC to announce its intention to offer for Kazakhmys by May 16, or walk away for six months.

“Following a detailed evaluation of the potential combination, the board of ENRC, while concluding that the enlarged group would have certain strategic and financial merits, has decided not to make an offer for Kazakhmys at the current time,” the firm said on Tuesday.

Kazakhmys was “pleased that a period of uncertainty has come to an end,” it said in a separate statement.

Kazakhmys has copper mining, smelting and refining operations in the Zhezkazgan, Balkhash and East regions of Kazakhstan, precious metals mines in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and copper processing and manufacturing units in Germany.

The company said last month that it had held preliminary talks with the government of Kazakhstan, including on the possibility of the government taking a minority stake in the company in exchange for natural resource assets in the country.

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