The Irish company Kenmare Resources, which exploits heavy sands in the Moma district of Nampula province, has turned down an offer of 565 million euros to sell its shares. Until Wednesday last week, the offer represented around 92% above its market value.

The proposal, according to Irish media, was made by the company's Managing Director and Founder, Michael Carvill, and the Abu Dhabi-based private equity firm Oryx Global Partners Limited.

The proposal of £5.30 (€6.33) per share was rejected as "undervaluing" the company, but the partners were invited to look at Kenmare's books and revise the proposal.

Carvill is said to have 'lost control' as it went through ups and downs to the point where it was left with just 0.6% of the company and the first shareholders left to make way for new investors.

Over 40 years he has led Kenmare's progress and made the Moma operations his core business. And his new intentions to take back control of Kenmare are linked to the idea that the market doesn't value the firm and the longevity of the Moma mine's potential, which goes beyond a hundred years of useful life.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and, being the former CEO, it seems that Mr. Carvill can see a better value in Kenmare than the market currently attributes to it," said Richard Hatch, analyst at Berenberg on Friday. "We think a higher offer at £5.80 (€6.93) per share would be fair and a good deal for shareholders."

One shareholder said that the sale of the company seems certain, with only the value of the sale at stake.

Carvill founded the company in 1986, taking over a listed and dormant oil and gas company left over from the boom exploration off the coast of Ireland in the 1970s.

Early efforts to use the company to take coal out of the Irish Sea and find gold in the Philippines failed. Meanwhile, Kenmare was politely asked to leave a gold project in Sudan after a military coup in 1989.

Having acquired an initial stake in a heavy mineral sands deposit in Mozambique in 1987, Carvill would eventually turn it into Kenmare's main focus.

The company began producing titanium and zircon minerals in 2007. Its main product is ilmenite, a white substance ground into a fine powder and used as a base in everything from paints and plastics to ceramics and textiles. It is the world's largest supplier of ilmenite, accounting for seven percent of the global market.

As Managing Director, Carvill was known to complain about how the market failed to appreciate the value of Moma with its estimated lifespan of over 100 years based on current production rates. That would take many price cycles.

Carvill left the company last year. This may be an inappropriate time for Kenmare to sell the shares, due to the fall in titanium mineral prices, but he believes it is opportune to make the purchase.