Barrick must make cash payments of C$1.02m and exploration work totalling C$16.57m over eight years, to earn up to a 75% stake in Patris.

Proceeds will be used to fund rehabilitation related to Energy Resources's Ranger uranium mine in the Northern Territory and repay a loan from Rio Tinto.

CEO Gary Nagle said Glencore's offer creates better value for shareholders all around than the one Teck is currently proposing.

The Teck proposal “shows that Glencore do see merit in spinning off coal, which they’ve never said before,” a portfolio manager said.

The demonstration plant will process 40,000 tonnes of ilmenite per year, making it the largest of its kind in the world.

The decline comes as it plans to conduct two-month maintenance at its Toyo Smelter & Refinery in Ehime, western Japan.

Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co Ltd plans to produce 107,000 tonnes of refined zinc in the first half of the 2023/24 financial year.