The offer values each Aur share at C$41.00, or 0.8749 of a Teck Class B subordinate voting share, on a pro-rated basis. The offer is a 29 per cent premium to Aur''s June 29 closing price of C$31.70 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Teck Cominco said it would pay a maximum of C$3.1 billion in cash and issue a maximum of about 22 million shares. Aur shareholders would receive C$30.75 in cash and 0.2187 of a Teck Cominco class B share per Aur common share.

"The acquisition of Aur Resources will immediately increase our cash flow and add substantially to our long term growth in copper production," Teck Comonco president and chief executive Donald Lindsay said in a statement.

Aur is a mid-tier company with major copper mines in Chile, which is the world''s biggest source of the metal used mainly for wiring and pipes. Aur''s assets include Chile''s Quebrada Blanca site, the Andacollo copper mine and the Andacollo copper-gold deposit under development. It also owns the Duck Pond copper-zinc mine in west-central Newfoundland.

B.C.-based Teck has been sitting on a huge cash pile and looking for acquisitions since losing a bitter battle for nickel miner Inco Ltd. last year.

Teck is the world''s second largest producer of zinc and a big player in metallurgical coal, copper, gold and specialty metals.

The planned acquisition would immediately boost Teck Cominco''s annual copper production by about 43 per cent. And by 2010, Teck''s yearly copper production with the acquisition would be expected to increase by 342 million pounds, or 72 per cent.

Meanwhile, copper futures rose to a seven-week high of $3.55 (US) a pound in New York due to labour unrest that has cut output at Chile''s state-owned Codelco, the world''s largest copper producer. The price of copper has quadrupled since mid-2003 and is up 25 per cent so far this year.

Explosive growth in China and India "bodes well for consumption" of copper, Lindsay told investors in a conference call.

Lindsay said the acquisition of Aur and its massive copper reserves in Chile marks the company''s largest takeover since it was formed more than 100 years ago.

"This is certainly not the last step in the transformation of Teck to a high growth company," he said.

The deal represents a further consolidation in the Canadian mining sector. Last week, Yamana Gold announced a planned acquisition of Northern Orion Resources, paving the way for the combined company to make a bid for Meridian Gold.

The global mining industry is witnessing numerous mergers as the big players gobble up smaller producers to take advantage of the bull market for metals, which has been spurred by record demand from China and India.