Norton announced the offer of A7c cash per share late on Thursday afternoon before the Easter break.

The offer represents a 30% premium to Bullabulling’s April 17 closing price and a 32% premium to the 30-day volume weighted average price of shares.

Norton noted the offer price represented a 77% premium over the prices at which Bullabulling recently issued shares to executives as bonuses for 2013.

The prize for Norton is Bullabulling’s namesake project near Kalgoorlie, which has a 3.75 million ounce resource and capital cost of about $300 million.

Norton CEO Dr Dianmin Chen said that with minimal conditions, the offer should appeal to Bullabulling shareholders.

“The Bullabulling gold project has significant funding challenges which a small company such as Bullabulling will have ongoing difficulties managing,” he said.

“By accepting the offer, Bullabulling shareholders will remove their exposure to these major financing risks and the likely continued dilution in the value of their shareholdings.”

Shareholders representing 6.6% of Bullabulling’s capital have committed to accept the offer.

Bullabulling said the unsolicited offer did “not adequately reflect the value of Bullabulling or the Bullabulling gold project” and was only made aware of the offer when it was announced publicly.

The company added that the price did not justify a change of control.

Bullabulling has appointed Gresham Advisory Partners as advisors and Herbert Smith Freehills as legal advisors to prepare a formal response to the bid.

In the meantime, Bullabulling has urged shareholders to take no action.

Norton is backed by China’s Zijin Mining Group Co, which controls more than 80% of its shares.

It plans to fund the offer using its cash reserves of $32 million, but has access to further funding from Zijin via loans.

The company has been on the hunt to grow, completing a takeover of Kalgoorlie Mining Company last year.

Norton also bid for the Barrick Gold assets acquired by Northern Star Resources.

It reported March quarter production of 38,600 ounces of gold at a C1 cost of $993 per ounce from the Paddington operation just outside Kalgoorlie.

Production was slightly higher than the previous quarter, though costs were up by $110/oz due to a small wall slip at the Enterprise pit and adverse weather conditions.

C3 total costs were $1342/oz, up from $1188/oz.

Norton and Bullabulling shares were unchanged at 11c and 5.4c respectively.