"The board has considered the proposal with its advisers and concluded that the proposal significantly undervalues Anglo American and its future prospects", it said in a statement.
And it is in high demand: The price of the metal on the London Metals Exchange has risen more than 13 per cent so far this year to almost $15,000 a metric ton, its highest level in about two years."First and foremost" the spurned takeover was about copper, William Tankard, principal analyst of base metals at CRU Group, told CNN before it was rejected.
Their combination would have attracted the scrutiny of competition authorities around the world, Tankard added. It would also have been the biggest merger or acquisition in the mining industry by value since Dealogic began collecting the data in 2004.