Jaguar Mining (JAG) (JAG.to) the centre of Chinese whispers, Bloomie style

Here's a chart of Jaguar Mining (JAG) (JAG.to):

And here's the story that proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt that China is desperate for gold, as desperation is the only possible motive if you want to pay a premium for a company like this. Thanks to reader LN for the headsup:

Shandong Gold Group Co., parent of China’s second-largest gold producer by market value, made a $785 million offer to buy Jaguar Mining Inc. (JAG), two people familiar with the deal said.
Shandong bid $9.30 for every Jaguar share, said the people, who asked not to be identified because of the information is confidential. That’s 73 percent more than Jaguar’s closing price of $5.39 yesterday in New York. The company has 84.4 million shares issued, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Jaguar Mining produces gold from its Turmalina and Paciência mines in Brazil and is also developing a third operation in the country. It produced 40,660 ounces of gold in the third quarter and full year output may be between 155,000 ounces and 163,000 ounces, according to an Oct. 18 statement.
There have been $37.3 billion of deals announced this year at an average premium of 25 percent, led by Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX)’s offer for Equinox Minerals Ltd. (EQN), according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with $35.9 billion of deals done last year.
Shandong spokesman Lu Haitao did not answer calls to his mobile.

It remains to be seen just how much of this story is real and official and how much is bullshit, of course. Those who have previously been burned by Bloomberg hype will know what I mean on that.

UPDATE: Turns out that Reuters is running the story too, which makes it somewhat more trustworthy in your humble scribe's view.  However the cash number mentioned in this version is $1Bn and again its "two sources that can't be named", so there is still a whiff of fishy about all this. But, quite honestly, it's still more than strange that JAG should be getting a $10-or-so PPS valuation from a cash deal like this when it hasn't traded at such levels since mid 2010. Then there's the basic back story of how badly run JAG has been this last couple of years. Oh well, WTFDIK anyway?

UPDATE 2: The market authorities have done the right thing and halted trading on the stock. Glad to see they're not asleep at the wheel on this one and, in general, the it's worth a shout-out that reg authorities in Canada have been doing a better job of policing the hairier aspects of their market recently. This is good.

Update 3: Jaguar Speaks! Here's the NR, here's the semi-cryptic comment that JAG hopes is enough to get the halt lifted, I suppose:

CONCORD, NH, Nov. 16, 2011 /CNW/ - Jaguar Mining Inc. ("Jaguar" or the "Company") (JAG: TSX/NYSE) in response to news articles today regarding an unsolicited offer to buy the Company, acknowledges that it has received proposals over the past few weeks.

The Company confirmed that, in light of the publicized unsolicited offer, the Board of Directors has determined to initiate a strategic process to explore alternatives to maximize shareholder value.  At this time, none of these proposals has progressed beyond the exploratory stage.  The Board has retained financial and legal advisors to assist in this regard.  There is no assurance that the process will culminate in a change of control transaction.

Jaguar's Board of Directors intends to update the shareholders of the Company at the appropriate time.

We also direct you to a new post today, entitled "What happens next at Jaguar Mining (JAG) (JAG.to)?"