SYDNEY, April 2 (Reuters) - Australian miner OZ Minerals Ltd has a preferred bidder for its partly developed Martabe gold and silver project in Indonesia, an OZ Minerals official told Reuters on Thursday.
"We have still got a competitive process going, but we have got preferred bidder and we would expect they would be people who complete (the deal)," Bruce Loveday, general manager business development for OZ Minerals said.
On Wednesday, OZ Minerals agreed to sell most of its assets, excluding Martabe and the Prominent Hill mine in Australia, to China's Minmetals for $1.21 billion. [ID:nSYD495273].
Separately, a source said the Martabe negotiations were progressing well.
"The discussions are progressing and a transaction could be completed on Martabe within a fairly short time frame," the source close to the transaction said.
The source declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.
