REFILE-OceanaGold may sell Philippine mine stake - minister Thu Dec 4, 2008 5:06am EST
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(Refiles to give full name and title of OceanaGold spokesman in paragraph six)
MANILA, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Australia-based OceanaGold (OGC.AX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (OGC.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is in talks with several investors to sell its controlling stake in the Didipio gold and copper project in the Philippines, the minister in charge of the mining sector said on Thursday.
"I believe they're negotiating for the sale of Didipio," Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza told reporters by phone patch from Las Vegas.
The Australian miner said on Wednesday it had put on hold its $320 million Didipio project amid funding difficulties due to the global credit crisis. [ID:nMAN345477]
Without giving names, Atienza said there were three local firms interested in the project estimated to produce around 120,000 ounces of gold and 15,000 tonnes of copper concentrate annually in its first 10 years of production.
"We'll wait until they (OceanaGold) finalise an agreement with the new owners," he said.
On Wednesday, Darren Klinck, OceanaGold's spokesman, said the firm had no plans for now to divest itself of its 92 percent interest in the Didipio prospect in the northern Nueva Vizcaya province.
The company said in October it was expecting to start commercial production in January 2010, nearly a year behind its initial plan, while it sought a partner to help fund an additional $185 million for the project.
Investments in the Philippine mining sector, one of the world's biggest and most profitable in the 1970s, have slowed to a trickle as legal uncertainties, disputes with local partners, communist insurgencies and opposition from the Catholic Church have turned off foreign miners.
Only $1.7 billion has flowed into the Southeast Asian nation's mining industry since 2004 when the Supreme Court cleared a law allowing foreigners to own 100 percent of large-scale mining projects. (Reporting by Manolo Serapio Jr.; Editing by Ben Tan)
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