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MELBOURNE, July 29 (Reuters) -
Copper assets are selling fastest among the wide range of mining assets on the block worldwide, with the higher-than-expected price tag on the Northparkes deal boding well for Glencore Xstrata's sale of the $5 billion Las Bambas copper project in Peru.

"Clearly there's a market for these assets," said Mike Harrowell, an analyst at broker BBY Ltd.

BHP Billiton recently sold a copper mine in Arizona for a better-than-expected $650 million.

China Molybdenum (CMOC) was a surprise winner, as Australian copper miner OZ Minerals had been seen as the most likely buyer of the 80 percent stake in Northparkes after China's MMG Ltd dropped out of the race.

CMOC, with a market value of $5 billion, mainly produces molybdenum and tungsten. The company went public last year backed by state-owned Luoyang Mining Group Co and billionaire Yu Yong.

"Copper is seen as one of the preferred commodities by the investment market," said UBS analyst Glyn Lawcock, adding that BHP and Rio's $3.4 billion investment on a water plant at the Escondida copper mine in Chile, announced last week, was evidence of bullish views on copper.

"Obviously the Chinese are taking a view on the copper market as well," Lawcock said.


UNDER PRESSURE

The price was better than analysts' valuations on Rio's Northparkes stake at around $400 million, excluding potential new resources. But analysts had said the company would look for between $750 million and $1 billion.

OZ Minerals had been under pressure from shareholders not to overpay for Northparkes, although the mine would have been a good fit as OZ needs production to fill a gap between the decline of its Prominent Hill mine and the ramp-up of its Carapateena mine.

Others who were in the running for Northparkes were Nyrstar and private equity firms Carlyle and KKR & Co. Most bids were below $800 million, said one banker involved. He declined to be named as the process was confidential.

Yu Yong's Cathay Fortune, a major stakeholder in China Molybdenum, is in the midst of another potential copper mine takeover, with a conditional bid for Australia's Discovery Metals, which owns a mine in Botswana.


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