More than a year after the plane crash that killed majority owner Ken Talbot, Sundance Resources is set to be taken over by Hanlong Mining Investment Ltd, a subsidiary of giant Chinese resource firm Sichuan Hanlong Group, with the suitor aiming to raise its present 18 percent stakes on the iron ore miner.

Sundance Resources Ltd lost its entire board last year following a tragic plane crash in Africa.

Sundance chair George Jones confirmed on Tuesday that Hanlong moved up its initial buyout bid from $0.50 per share, made earlier in July this year, to $0.54, leaving the whole proposal to carry a full amount of $1.65 billion.

"After careful consideration, the Sundance board has unanimously concluded that the offer represents an attractive price and provides shareholders with an opportunity to realize considerable value from their investment in Sundance," the Australian Associated Press (AAP) quoted Jones as saying in a released statement today.

He added that the attractive offer prompted the Sundance board to approve for the issuance of a conditional implementation agreement, which serves as its unanimous recommendation for company shareholders to accept the deal.

Hanlong's existing Sundance shares were originally owned by Talbot, who along with members of the board died in a plane crash while visiting the West Africa-focused firm's Mbalam iron ore project, located between the borders of Cameroon and Congo.

The billion-dollar deal, according to Jones, will require the approval of government regulators from Australia, China, Cameroon and Congo.

Prior to that, Sundance will submit the proposal to company shareholders, which in turn will vote on the bid by April 2012.

Officials of both firms are projecting that Sundance investors will formally hand down their approval for the merger during the annual shareholders meeting, which then will be followed by the deal's official completion, set to take place on May next year.