Barrick Gold has beaten a Chinese rival to buy a major copper miner.
The world's biggest gold producer will pay about $7 billion US dollars for Equinox Minerals.
The offer, which has been accepted, is 16% higher than a rival bid from Chinese firm Minmetals earlier this month.
Equinox owns the Lumwana copper and uranium mine in Zambia - Africa's third largest - and the Jabal Sayid copper deposits in Saudi Arabia.
The firm, which is jointly listed in Canada and Australia, says Barrick's offer is superior, not only in terms of price, but also its likelihood of being completed.
Equinox has agreed not to seek any other bids and to give Barrick the right to match any other solicited bids it gets.
It has also agreed to pay Barrick a 250 million Canadian dollar fine if it withdraws from the takeover.
Barrick has been riding high thanks to the gold price, which hit a new all-time high yesterday at $15-hundred-18 US dollars an ounce.
But the company's share price closed down almost 7% yesterday after the deal was announced.
While the price of gold has doubled in the last two years, the price of copper has more than tripled to its own all-time high.
And Equinox' share price has risen with it.
Following Barrick's $8.15-a-share offer, the copper miner's share price jumped even further to $8.37 dollars.
