The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that global mining companies' lunge for copper has intensified with BHP Group's unsolicited proposal to buy rival Anglo American PLC for $39-billion (all figures U.S.). The Globe's Eric Reguly writes that competing offers are expected. The offer marks a return to the megadeals that transformed the mining industry in the first and second decades of this century. If successful, it would be the biggest takeover since Glencore PLC's $90-billion merger with Xstrata, which owned Canada's Falconbridge nickel miner, in 2013. Based in Melbourne, BHP is the world's biggest mining company and is led by Canadian Mike Henry. If BHP's offer is accepted, the company would emerge as the world's top producer of copper, up from third-largest, according to RBC Capital Markets. The enlarged BHP would control about 10 per cent of the global supply of copper, a metal that is essential for electric vehicles, wind turbines, electrical grids and residential and commercial-property wiring. Last year, Glencore made a hostile, $22.5-billion takeover offer for copper-heavy Teck Resources of Vancouver. The bid was rejected, but Teck later agreed to sell its metallurgical coal operations to Glencore.