Reuters reported that Jinchuan Group Limited, China's dominant nickel producer, may be the secret bidder for South African miner Metorex.

Metorex, attractive due to its copper and cobalt operations in Africa, said earlier it had received an interest from another unnamed party after an earlier USD 1.1 billion bid from Brazil's Vale.

With a busy project pipeline and potential for brownfield expansion, Metorex, seeks to more than double its current annual copper production of around 50,000 tonnes.

Metorex shares were up 0.90% at ZAR 7.87 by 0811 GMT. The share has risen nearly 50% in the year to date outperforming 2.6% fall in the All Share index.

(Sourced from Reuters)