Chinese group makes offer for CanadaÔÇÖs Crowflight

Jinchuan Group, China's biggest producer of nickel, copper and platinum-palladium, has made a C$150 million offer for Toronto-based Crowflight Minerals.  Crowflight is a producer of nickel in Northern Manitoba and a holder of other development properties in Northern Ontario. The company recently restarted its Bucko Lake nickel mine within the Thompson Nickel Belt in Manitoba as the price of the metal recovered. It also has Ontario exploration properties, which lie predominantly in the Sudbury Basin, one of the world's richest known deposits of nickel and platinum group metals. Once in full production, Bucko Lake will produce at a life-of-mine rate of 1,000 tonnes per day, yielding 11.1 million pounds of nickel per year on average. Crowflight is also exploring 700 square kilometres of advanced-stage exploration properties surrounding the Bucko Lake Deposit. Nickel is a key ingredient in the manufacture of stainless steel. Mining nickel also produces high-value cobalt, copper and platinum group metals. Jinchuan is the largest producer of nickel, cobalt and platinum in China and the largest producer of copper in northern China. Its production of nickel ranks fourth in the world and its production of cobalt second in the world. The Asian company owns one of the top nickel-copper mines in the worldÔÇöthe Jinchuan nickel-copper mine. Its move to acquire Crowflight is the latest in a series by Chinese companies to gain partial or full control of Canadian mining assets to secure base metal supplies. Last year, ChinaÔÇÖs Jilin Jien Nickel Industry Co. paid almost $200 million for Canadian RoyaltiesÔÇÖ partly-developed Nunavik nickel project in Northern Quebec. Crowflight has confirmed that it is ÔÇ£reviewingÔÇØ the offer but said it could make no assurance that any transaction would take place with Jinchuan. JinchuanÔÇÖs offer price represents a 53 percent premium on CrowflightÔÇÖs closing share price on Monday.