After acquiring a 96.3 per cent interest in the company, West Perth-based copper producer Straits Resources Ltd will offer one Straits share for every 7.5 shares held in its NSW copper interests spinoff, Tritton Resources Ltd.
The offer could also be realised as a cash consideration of 51 cents for every Tritton share held.
Straits' decision to buy back underperforming Tritton was predicated on the company's push to increase overall copper production from 45,000 tonnes/year in 2006 to 70,000t/year within three years.
"We've decided that if we are going to sponsor a potentially large copper business, we are going to do it in house," Mr Jerkovic said
Tritton owns the Tritton copper mine near Nyngan in New South Wales, which is expected to produce around 26,000t of copper-in-concentrate this year, while Straits owns the Whim Creek operation in WA expected to produce up to 17,000t of copper-in-cathode this year.
Straits has undertaken a review of the Tritton ore body and the surrounding exploration targets, with an updated 10-years-plus life of mine plan nearing completion.
Mr Jerkovic said preliminary analysis indicated the ore body fell into the "difficult" category of operations, but the regional resource base and existing infrastructure had the potential to host a mid-size copper producer in the medium to long term.