By Eric Onstad
LONDON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Xstrata Plc rejected calls from shareholders of Anglo American Plc to pay a premium to combine the two mining groups and cautioned that metals prices could be volatile in the second half.
"This merger was developed to deliver all the synergies which will be equally shared. We don't see this as a takeover and therefore we don't see this as a situation where typically a premium should be paid," Chief Executive Mick Davis said in an interview on Tuesday.
"We put a proposition to the Anglo board, I think it's sensible for them to engage with us to discuss the potential of that proposition and we're just waiting for them to do that. We're quite patient and we'll wait."
Davis said Anglo's new chairman John Parker has an outstanding reputation in the city and "I think one has to wait for him to form his own views."
He said Lonmin, the world's third biggest platinum producer, was "still a tremendously good option". Xstrata dropped a $10 billion takeover bid for Lonmin last year, but bought a 25 percent stake in the firm.
Davis said metals prices were likely to be volatile in the second half of 2009 and that a world economic recovery depended on healthy activity by consumers in the United States and China, which has not yet been seen.
(Reporting by Eric Onstad; editing by John Stonestreet)