Late yesterday afternoon Palmary released its updated offer for ConsMin, raising its offer from $3.95 per ConsMin share to $4.50 per share.

The offer was conditional on the ConsMin board unanimously recommending the offer by 12pm eastern standard time today - a condition which ConsMin fulfilled this morning.

The manganese miner today said it backed Palmary's play and withdrew its support for the Pallinghurst Group's rival bid of $4.10 per share.

However, last week Pallinghurst said it intended to further vary its $4.10 offer to provide ConsMin shareholders with a top-up offer to match any subsequent higher bids.

In its statement today ConsMin said that because Pallinghurst has not yet released a supplementary bidder's statement or a notice of variation in relation to that top-up payment, the terms of that top-up payment remained unclear.

"The absence of clarity on the terms of the top-up payment mechanism and the uncertainty regarding whether or not the criteria specified to date by Pallinghurst for the making of the top-up payment will be satisfied has led the board of [ConsMin] to conclude that the increased palmary offer is superior," ConsMin said.

This morning Pallinghurst also extended its offer, now scheduled to close at 7pm September 22.

Shares in ConsMin were last trading at $4.61, up 11c in morning trade.