Copper producer Kazakhmys has rejected a proposal from LSE-listed Eurasian Natural Resources (ENRC), the firm said on Friday.

Kazakhmys said it had received 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.

The proposal valued each Kazakhmys share at about 1 550p, which was “well below” the current share price, the firm said.

Kazakhmys shares closed in London at 1 914p a share on Thursday.

ENRC said on March 12 that one of the opportunities it was considering was a possible merger with Kazakhmys.

Kazakhmys said at the time that it had not received a proposal from ENRC, but subsequently had 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.

“The board of Kazakhmys has considered and unanimously rejected the proposal from ENRC,” the firm said in a statement on Friday.

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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