Has FQM's board approved a £3bn bid? It's 2:45am in Vancouver. Do you know where your investor relations department is? Here's this morning's Daily Mail. From prey to predator. Dual-listed First Quantum Minerals - the second largest copper and nickel group in Canada, which has this year been tipped as a possible takeover target of Rio Tinto, China's Sinopec and Glencore International to name but a few - is said to be ready to go on the acquisition trail itself. Its shares jumped 39p to 1417p in London amid speculation that its management has recently held informal takeover discussions with Inmet Mining Corporation, a Canadian producer of copper, zinc and gold, whose shares rose C$1.7 or 3 per cent to C$57.01 on the Toronto exchange. Word is First Quantum Minerals is being advised by Goldman Sachs and Jefferies and is ready to bid up to C$5bn for Inmet. Any deal will involve bridging finance of around C$2.8bn, which apparently will be provided by Citigroup, Standard Chartered and JP Morgan. The story we heard was much the same but slightly different. Usual disclaimers apply. According to usually reliable people, FQM's board was said to have approved a C$4.8bn (£3bn) offer for Inmet, equivalent to about C$72 a share. Talks between the companies were described to be both "informal" and "advanced" suggesting they were Schrodinger's Talks. Citi and Standard Chartered had been lined up (on non-binding indicative terms) to provide bridge financing of between $C2bn and C$2.5bn, according to the usually reliable people. Goldman Sachs would be arranging a C$2bn equity issue, apparently, with Jefferies herding them all all together as M&A advisor. Inmet, it was said, had drafted in Credit Suisse and Rothschild to organise its defence. Its top brass is in Panama at the moment. Now, much as we'd like to confirm or deny this rumour, the FTSE 250-listed FQM no longer employs a UK-based external PR agency and no-one at its London office was able to respond to our voicemails this morning. More as soon as we get it, whenever that might be. Vancouver is eight hours behind London, for reference.