UPDATE 2-Lundin, Inmet put off merger vote as rival Equinox bid...

UPDATE 2-Lundin, Inmet put off merger vote as rival Equinox bid looms

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Equinox Minerals Ltd
EQN.AX
$5.80
-0.02-0.34%4:10pm UTC+1100
Equinox Minerals Ltd
EQN.TO
$5.76
-0.06-1.03%03/04/2011
Inmet Mining Corp
IMN.TO
$64.00
-5.12-7.41%03/04/2011
Sun Mar 6, 2011 8:19pm EST

* Vote on Lundin-Inmet merger postponed to March 28

* Lundin gets extra time to respond to Equinox bid

* Equinox expected to send formal offer this week (Adds Equinox timetable, background, share prices)

MELBOURNE/VANCOUVER, March 7 (Reuters) - Lundin Mining Corp and Inmet Mining have pushed back shareholder votes on their merger as Lundin's board weighs a rival $5 billion bid from Equinox Minerals Ltd .

The votes, which had been scheduled for March 14, will now be held on March 28, Lundin and Inmet said on Sunday in Canada.

Lundin's board of directors has not formally responded to Equinox's unsolicited C$4.8 billion offer, but top management of the Canadian mining firm has slammed the offer as unattractive and too risky. For details, see

Equinox is expected to send its formal offer to Lundin this week.

Equinox's hand was strengthened last week when the government of Panama dealt a blow to Inmet's key growth project, announcing plans to repeal a new law that allows foreign government investment in mines in the country.

The law, passed less than a month ago, was crucial to Inmet as it plans to partner with Singapore state investor Temasek and Korea Resources Corp to finance and build is $4.3 billion Cobre Panama copper-gold project.

Shares in Inmet, which is considered unlikely to take on Equinox in a bidding war, fell 7.4 percent on Friday to close at C$64 after Panama announced the repeal of the key law.

Under the friendly Lundin-Inmet arrangement the pair would join forces to form Symterra, a major Canadian copper miner with a market capitalization of C$9 billion.

Shareholders of Inmet would own 52.6 percent of the new company and Lundin investors the rest.

Lundin's shares in Toronto closed at C$7.90 on Friday, just below Equinox's cash and share offer valued at C$8.10 per share, indicating investors do not expect a higher bid to emerge.

Equinox's Australian shares slipped 1 cent on Monday to A$5.81. Its Canadian shares closed at C$5.76 last Friday. (Reporting by Allan Dowd and Sonali Paul; Editing by Gary Crosse and Ed Davies)