Zijin Mining Group Co (紫金礦業), China’s third-largest copper producer, agreed to pay A$545 million (US$500 million) for Indophil Resources NL to gain a stake in Southeast Asia’s largest untapped copper and gold deposit.
The Chinese company offered A$1.28 a share in cash, 18 percent more than the last traded price, Melbourne-based Indophil said yesterday in a statement. Xstrata Plc, the Australian company’s largest shareholder and the majority owner of the deposit that it shares with Indophil, accepted the offer, a separate filing said.
Zijin may have to contend with attacks by local guerrilla groups that killed a worker and delayed work on the undeveloped US$5.2 billion Tampakan copper and gold project in the Philippines.
China, the biggest metal consumer, wants to own deposits to guarantee supply and limit exposure to rising commodity prices.
“China would have to satisfy itself that if it supported a development it would have the security of tenure and ability to operate in a safe work practice environment,” said Grant Craighead, a mining analyst at Sydney-based Stock Resource. “China needs security of supply and it is putting its foot on as many assets as it can.”
Fujian Province-based Zijin, also China’s largest gold producer, is planning to increase overseas investment because the time is “still good,” vice chairman Lan Fusheng (藍福生) said on Oct. 22.
The company has spent US$300 million in the past five years on eight overseas projects.
“The scale and asset quality of Tampakan attracted us,” Lan said yesterday. “We also value the experience of Xstrata in mining and dealing with the local community.”
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