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MELBOURNE, April 19 (Reuters) - Australia's Perseus Mining expects to start building the $160 million Sissingue gold mine in Cote d'Ivoire in the middle of this year despite the recent slide in gold prices to a two-year low, its chief executive said on Friday.

New Chief Executive Jeff Quartermaine said while the company was not immune to the falling gold price, which sank to nearly $1,321 an ounce this week, it would need to fall much further to start causing Perseus any difficulty.

'Our expectation is that we won't have any issues as far as funding (Sissingue), in the absence of a major collapse in the gold price level. When I'm talking major, I'm talking about many hundreds of dollars an ounce below where we are,' he told analysts on a conference call.

He also said he expects to secure key agreements in Cote d'Ivoire for the project by the end of June, following moves by the government to speed up adoption of a new mining code which would set a stable fiscal regime for Sissingue.

'We are very encouraged by developments in the last few weeks,' Quartermaine said after the company released its March-quarter production report.

Perseus aims to start producing by mid-to-late 2014 in Cote d'Ivoire, where Sissingue has a measured and indicated resource of 925,000 ounces of gold and further exploration underway.

The company plans to finance construction of the mine through its existing cash and bullion balance, cash flow from its Edikan mine in Ghana and a credit facility it has available.

Perseus shares were up 7.1 percent by Friday afternoon. The broader Australian stock market was off 0.1 percent.

(Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman) Keywords: PERSEUS IVORYCOAST/

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