Nov 29, Zijin Mining buys all of Indophil’s outstanding shares for RMB 7.91 yuan per share, and the acquisition price approximates RMB 3368 million yuan. Through this acquisition, Zijin Mining now owns the largest untapped copper-gold deposit in the Southeast Asia region.
Indophil Resources NL (below “Indophil” for short) is an exploration and development company, mainly for prospecting and developing copper-gold mines in the Southeast Asia region, and its core asset is the ownership of 34.23% equity of SMI’s A-class shares. SMI is a Philippine resources exploration and development company, possessing the world level copper-gold deposit in the south Philippines – Tampakan copper-gold mine. Tampakan copper-gold mine is the largest unexploited copper-gold deposit in the Southeast Asia region, this mine has a thick and large orebody, with good mining conditions, suitable for a large-scale open-air mining. At present, the feasibility study on the Tampakan copper-gold mine project is just in the final phase, and will be completed in the 2nd quarter of 2010. As expected this project will be put into commercial production in 2016. According to the present estimation, this project will annually process 44 million tons of ores at the 1st stage, and 66 million tons of ores increasingly at the 2nd stage. As estimated the mine service life is 20 years, during which period on average annually 340 thousand tons of copper concentrates (including copper) and 350 thousand ounces of gold (10.89 tons) will be produced.
In addition to the Tampakan copper-gold mine, Indophil also possesses other prospecting projects in the Philippines, including 3 franchise land rights and 16 land rights at the application stage, they are respectively situated in the north and south of Luzon, the middle and east of Mindanao, the Philippines. Besides the Tampakan copper-gold mine project, Indophil is also actively pushing ahead the existing prospecting projects, and seeking for new prospecting projects.
The Company further obtains 37.5% interest in the Philippine Tampakan copper-gold mine project through buying the equity of Indophil, which not only effectively increases the Company’s resources reserves, but also provides a powerful guarantee for the Company’s follow-up development and the raw materials after the construction of the 200,000-ton copper smelting project is completed. This acquisition will help push forward the Company’s international course, and boost the Company’s profitability and growth sustainability.