Indophil May Okay Sale of Tampakan Stake to Alsons

Australian miner Indophil Resources Ltd is confident its shareholders will approve the sale of its stake in an undeveloped Philippine copper and gold mine, a company official said on Tuesday.

Indophil expects to raise at least A$400m ($283.4m) from the sale of its entire 34.23% interest in the Tampakan mine in the southern Mindanao island to Philippine conglomerate Alsons Consolidated Resources Inc.

"I expect that we will get strong shareholder support" for the deal, Gavan Collery, Indophil spokesman said on the sidelines of a mining conference in Manila.

Indophil shareholders will meet on 12 November in Melbourne to approve the sale, Collery said. Only Alsons has submitted an offer for the Australian firm's stake in Tampakan.

Alsons, which is part of the Stanhill consortium that has been battling global miner Xstrata Plc to buy the whole of Indophil, has started a due diligence on the Tampakan mine.

Alsons had offered the equivalent of A$1.28 a share for Indophil's interest in Tampakan.

Asked if Indophil was waiting for a better offer for its Tampakan stake, Collery said: "We have to remain focused on the deal that's at hand, and that is the deal with Alsons."

"Where Xstrata is now, they do not have any offer on the table for either Indophil or Indophil's shares in Tampakan," he said.

Xstrata has previously said it would not extend its offer, also of $1.28 a share, and an official signaled on Tuesday the company may let Alsons buy the remaining Indophil stake in Tampakan.

"If that's the way it will go, that's the way it will go. We'll save on future dollars from it," said Peter Forrestal, executive general manager at Xstrata Copper.

Xstrata owns 17.8% of Indophil and a majority stake of 62.5% in Tampakan.

The Tampakan mine, believed to be one of the largest untapped copper deposits in Southeast Asia, holds 11.6 million tons of copper and 14.6 million ounces of gold. Geologists said the deposits can be extracted at a cost that is a fraction of today's copper and gold prices. The Philippines previously said it expects $1bn would be required to develop the mine starting next year. The Tampakan mine has never left the drawing board after its discovery in 1991, dogged by environmental and economic problems and political instability.

by Manolo Serapio Jr.; editing by Louise Heavens.