NEW YORK (Commodity Online): Canada’s High River Gold Mines Ltd is in a soup now. And giants after now lurking around to take over the mining company. One of the prospective buyers is Russian metals giant OAO Severstal.

High River’s tale begins with a liquidity problems during the recession last year.

After an overhaul of the board, High River was bailed out through a pair of private placements with Severstal, which assumed a 57% control stake.

Severstal then made a friendly all-cash offer for the whole company in June, valued at 22¢ a share. That was well above the 4¢ that the stock bottomed out at last year, but a fraction of its value prior to the liquidity problems.

A group of large shareholders, including Sprott Asset Management and funds from Russia, complained that the offer was too low for a company that could produce 300,000 ounces of gold this year from mines in Russia and West Africa.

Severstal responded by raising its bid to 30¢ a share, valuing High River at about $195-million.

But those investors continue to oppose the merger.

Shareholders are ready to accept and offer of average minimum price of $1.44 a share.

Since taking control of High River, Severstal has made some personnel changes at the mines and improved performance.

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