Linklaters is understood to be advising Glencore Xstrata on the sale of its Las Bambas copper mine in Peru for as much as $5bn (£3.3bn).

The newly merged mining giant has been obliged to sell Las Bambas by Chinese competition regulators as a condition of this year's $64bn (£41bn) combination of commodities trader Glencore and mining giant Xstrata.

The Linklaters team is understood to include corporate partners Charlie Jacobs and David Avery-Gee and competition partner Christian Ahlborn.

Glencore has appointed investment banks BMO Capital Markets and Credit Suisse to work on the transaction. The company has until 30 September next year to strike a deal to sell the Las Bambas project to a buyer approved by the Chinese ministry of commerce.

Reuters reported last month that two companies linked to Chinese state-backed groups – Chinalco Mining Corp International and MMG – were considering making bids for Las Bambas.

Glencore is a longstanding client of Linklaters, with the magic circle firm advising on its $10bn (£6.3bn) initial public offering in 2011.

The merger of Glencore and Xstrata took 15 months to complete, with Linklaters taking the role for longstanding client Glencore, while Freshfields advised Xstrata fielding a team under London corporate partner Julian Makin.

The merger was completed this May, with former Glencore general counsel Richard Marshall named head of legal. Benny Levene, the chief legal counsel of Xstrata, left in April after a six-month period as a consultant.