Miner and commodity trader Glencore said on Friday it had rejected an unsolicited approach from an unnamed buyer for its operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo at the end of last year.
“Glencore has not engaged any banks or advisors and is not running a sale process for its operations in the DRC,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Earlier in the day, the Financial Times reported that the miner was considering selling a part or all of its Congolese assets and had held preliminary discussions with a potential buyer from the Middle East about its copper and cobalt mines in the region.
Glencore declined to name the buyer when contacted by Reuters.
Shares of the FTSE 100 company rose as much as 4.8% after the FT report. They have fallen nearly 9% in the last 12 months.
Global miners have been sizing each other up as they look at ways to bolster their position in metals such as copper that are set to be in high demand as industries shift to cleaner forms of energy.
Glencore, one of the world’s biggest producers of coal and base metals, had previously said that it was open to M&A transactions that create value for its shareholders.
It approached Rio Tinto last year about combining the two big copper producers into the world’s biggest listed miner, however the talks fell through, Reuters reported in January.
These failed talks followed BHP’s $49-billion bid for smaller peer Anglo American last year which failed due to issues with the deal’s structure.
Reuters reported last year that Glencore had also been studying a potential combination with Anglo American after BHP’s approach emerged.