Mining Journal reported that the share prices of Grupo Mexico SAB and Vedanta Resources plc were tied to their court battle for Asarco LLC this week.

A judge's recommendation of Grupo offer saw its shares jump almost 20% while Vedanta fell by over 8%.

US bankruptcy court judge Mr Richard Schmidt made his recommendation to district judge Mr Andrew Hanen who will make the final decision about what will happen to Asarco which filed for bankruptcy in 2005.

Judge Mr Hanen said that he planned to make his decision by the end of November.

Judge Mr Schmidt told the court that "The parent’s plan achieves good objective consequences because it provides a cash recovery in full satisfaction of creditors' claims, the greatest immediate recovery to various constituencies and certainty of funding.”

Mr Jorge Lazalde VP and legal director at Asarco said in the statement that “We’re extremely pleased with Judge Mr Schmidt’s ruling."

Mr Alberto de la Parra general legal director of Grupo said that "We hope to help Asarco become a leading mining company in the US again."

Regarding Judge Mr Schmidt's recommendation, a London based spokesman for Vedanta said that "We are concentrating on the main decision which we expect in 4 to 6 weeks time."

Creditors claim to be owed USD 3.62 billion from US copper producer Asarco which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy amid claims of a history of pollution and asbestos related harm. Former parent company Grupo is offering creditors USD 1.72 billion with a USD 280 million note. Vedanta subsidiary Sterlite Industries is offering USD 2.1 billion in cash on closing of a connected loan note.

(Sourced from Mining Journal)