Sunday, September 30, 2007 Indophil gives initial payment to Alsons for stake in mine firm
KORONADAL CITY--Australian mining firm Indophil Resources NL has officially started acquiring the stakes of a local Filipino company involved in the huge Tampakan copper and gold venture straddling three Mindanao province, the foreign company confirmed.
Last March, Indophil and Alsons Corp., which is held by the Alcantara family, forged an agreement for the latter to yield its five percent shares to the former in the huge mining project pursued by Sagittarius Minces, Inc.
In its 2007 half-year report released Tuesday, Bryan Phillips, Indophil chair, announced they have initially paid Alsons some $2.8 million the following month.
The agreement for Alsons to yield its share to Indophil came after Xstrata Copper took majority control of Sagittarius in March.
The company [Indophil] is awaiting regulatory approval for the completion of the sale and purchase. On receipt of the regulatory approval Indophil, will issue Alsons 11.1 million Indophil shares," Phillips said.
Xstrata Copper, the copper division of the major global mining group Xstrata Plc, holds 62.5 percent shares in the Tampakan project after it exercised its option last December.
Under the Indophil-Alsons arrangement, Alsons will exchange its five percent interest in the Tampakan project for newly-issued Indophil shares and cash payments.
Once the arrangement is fully completed, Indophil's stake at the Tampakan project will climb to 37.5 percent.
"This is an excellent outcome for Indophil and its long-term partner Alsons. With Alsons emerging as a significant shareholder in Indophil, it is in both our interests to work closely together to develop the Tampakan deposit, and pursue other exploration and development opportunities in the Philippines," Tony Robbins, now a member of Indophil's board of director, said.
"This further demonstrates Indophil's great faith in the potential of the Tampakan project, one of the world's largest undeveloped and cost-competitive copper-gold deposits," Robbins added.
With Alsons cooperation, we are strengthening Indophil's position as a major shareholder in this project, he said.
The transaction will be completed as certain key project milestones are reached at the Tampakan project.
As each milestone is achieved, Indophil will receive approximately one third of Alsons' existing five percent Tampakan project interest.
With the first tranche done already, 11.1 million new shares have been issued to Alsons, raising the number of shares on issue in Indophil to 386.7 million, up from the previous 375.6 million.
This means that Alsons now only holds 3.8 percent of the shares in the Tampakan project while Indophil increased its stake to approximately 34 percent. (BSS)
