Mergers and acquisitions among Canadian mining companies are heating up and the trend is expected to continue in 2010 as businesses seek to cut costs and gain control of scarce resources.

Two Chinese companies on Monday offered $650 million for Vancouver-based Corriente Resources, while over the holidays a Mexican-controlled company upped its bid for Canplats Resources Corp., also based in Vancouver, to about $277 million. That topped a revised offer from Goldcorp.

Toronto-listed International Royalty Corp. is also today urging shareholders to reject a hostile offer from U.S. company Franco-Nevada Corp. in favour of an earlier transaction it agreed to with Royal Gold Corp.

There has been a surge in mergers and acquisitions in Canada in recent years, with about $100 billion in transactions in 2009 despite the economic slowdown, according to a November report by Deloitte & Touche. A large chunk of those deals were in the mining sector, the report said.

“Looking forward, M&A activity in the mining industry is expected to accelerate as the global economy strengthens and competition for assets intensifies,” Deloitte said.

Miners are seeking to cut exploration costs by creating economies of scale. They are also looking to replenish reserves as a pick up in global economies boosts demand for commodities. Many of Canada’s junior miners need to look for partners to provide additional expertise and muscle to develop their resources, analysts say.

China Railway Construction Corp. and Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co. announced their all-cash offer for Corriente on Monday in a statement through the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Corriente develops copper, gold, silver and molybdenum mines and its main assets are mining rights in southeastern Ecuador's Corriente Copper Belt, the statement said.

Raymond James base metals analyst Tom Meyer said Corriente was an obvious target because of its world-scale copper projects and the expectation that copper prices will rise.

“Given the recent uptick in commodity prices, we expect an acceleration in M&A activity in the base metals sector,” he said in a note.

Minera Penmont – which is 44% owned by Newmont and controlled by Mexican miner Fresnillo Plc – on Sunday trumped a revised Christmas Eve offer for Canplats.

“The Minera bid is worth 9% more than the Goldcorp offer and is a “superior proposal,” Canplats said in a statement. Shareholders will receive $4.80 in a mixture of cash and shares in a new exploration company.

Canplats is a junior miner whose exploration efforts are based on the Camino Rojo gold and metals project in Mexico.

International Royalty says the deal it has with Royal Gold, made earlier this month, would be worth about $749 million in cash and stock. The rival Franco-Nevada offer is worth about $649 million in cash.

"The Royal Gold transaction is superior to the Franco-Nevada offer and more attractive to IRC shareholders," International Royalty said in a release.