* Arcelor-led bid offer expires at 11:59 on Monday

* Shares closed C$0.01 above offer price on Friday

By Pav Jordan

TORONTO, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Stakeholders in Baffinland Iron Mines <BIM.TO>, owner of a vast Arctic iron ore deposit, have until midnight on Monday to tender to a C$590 million ($594 million) takeover offer led by No. 1 steelmaker ArcelorMittal, ending a months-long standoff.

The C$1.50-a-share offer expires at 11:59 p.m. (0459 GMT on Tuesday) and is a joint bid from Arcelor <ISPA.AS> and Nunavut Iron Ore, a private equity-backed company it joined forces with on Jan. 14, ending a bidding war for Baffinland's Mary River deposit that started in September.

Under the agreement, ArcelorMittal and Nunavut Iron will own 70 percent and and 30 percent of Baffinland respectively.

The Baffinland board recommends the offer, and the shares have eased toward the bid price in recent days, indicating the market does not expect an eleventh-hour rival bid.

"Is this it? Maybe," said Peter Campbell, senior mining analyst at Jennings Capital in Toronto, noting the uptick in acquisition activity in the Canadian iron ore market since Baffinland went into play. "It's up to the shareholders now to either tender or not tender."

The stock closed on Friday at C$1.51 in low volume trading, up nearly fivefold from 35 cents before the takeover battle began. The shares peaked at C$1.58 before Arcelor and Nunavut ended their rivalry.

The Mary River project could contain enough iron ore to supply the whole of Europe for years, and the takeover battle underscored the intensifying race for resources as China, India and other emerging countries build roads, bridges and housing to meet the needs of growing and more affluent populations.

The value of the deal is small by global standards. Cleveland, Ohio-based iron ore and coal miner Cliffs Natural Resources <CLF.N> agreed this month to buy Canada's Consolidated Thompson Iron Mines <CLM.TO>, which has an operating mine, for C$4.07 billion.

Baffinland's Mary River project -- in northern Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic territory of Nunavut -- will cost as much as C$4 billion to develop and could have limited production as early as 2013. But its direct ocean access to key European ports, albeit needing ice-breaking bulk carriers, means it could displace Europe's traditional suppliers.

The huge deposit will help ArcelorMittal meet its goal of becoming less dependent on dominant iron ore producers like BHP Billiton <BHP.AX> and Vale SA <VALE5.SA> to feed its steel mills.

Arcelor's partner, Nunavut Iron, is backed by the Energy and Minerals Group, a $2 billion U.S.-based fund that specializes in financing development of major resource assets.

($1=$0.99 Canadian) (Reporting by Pav Jordan; editing by Janet Guttsman and Rob Wilson)