China Railway Construction Corp. Ltd. and Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co. are interested to take over Vancouver-based miner Corriente Resources Inc. for 679 million Canadian dollars.

China Railway Construction Corp. Ltd., China's second-biggest railway builder, wants to buy Corriente in a 50-50 partnership with Chinese copper miner. The companies are ready to offer C$8.60 a share to Corriente shareholders which are 14% premium to the company's last traded share of C$7.55.

Corriente is into exploration and development of copper, gold, silver and molybdenum mines. The company has mining rights in four copper and copper-gold deposits in southeast Ecuador, including the Mirador copper-gold project.

"It's a trend for Chinese companies to acquire metal resources abroad to meet domestic demand. Tongling needs copper raw materials because of its giant capacity and almost zero self- sufficiency", says Li Jingyuan, an analyst at Haitong Futures Co. said from Shanghai today.

Both the companies are on rise with China Railway Construction up 1.1 percent to HK$9.98 and Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Co. up by 0.5 percent to 21.56 yuan.

China Railway is waiting for the majority of Corriente's shareholders to agree for the takeover.