"We are asking for more *time* to settle several processes... 180 days more," Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said in Jakarta on Friday.

Bambang Setiawan, director general of the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's division for coal, minerals and geothermal said that based on international arbitration to extend the time of divestment, it would be possible if both parties, the government and NTT, agreed on the matter.

"Our divestment deadline will be on September 27. If there is no deal yet about Newmont stake divestment, we can extend the process until November 2009 just like the divestment deadline of Newmont this year," Bambang said as quoted by Detik.com on Friday.

He assured that the government would finish purchasing the stakes by September 27.

Newmont is required by its contract with the government to submit to the central government, to the regional governments, to state-owned companies or to any local private companies designated by them. This was recently endorsed by an arbitration panel on March that demanded Newmont sell a total 31 percent of its stake in NNT - the operator of the Batu Hijau Mine, Indonesia's second largest copper mine

The Finance Ministry recently has appointed regional governments - West Nusa Tenggara province, Sumbawa Regency and West Sumbawa Regency - to lead the consortium to acquire the remaining 21 percent of shares to be divested by Newmont.

Previously, the three local governments had formed a consortium to acquire the first 10 percent shares in NNT, covering the parts of the stake that were supposed to be divested in 2006 (3 percent) and 2007 (7 percent).

To finance the acquisition of the 10 percent shares for the NTB-led consortium, which will cost US$391 million, the three local governments have chosen PT Multicapital, a subsidiary of Indonesia's biggest mining company PT Bumi Resources, as their partner to facilitate the deal.

No agreement so far has been made between the government and Newmont on the value of the remaining 21 percent shares nor how the government going to come up with the funds for the acquisition.

Last month, State Minister for State Enterprises Sofyan Djalil expressed his full support for state mining company PT Aneka Tambang and coal producer PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam (PTBA) to take part in the acquisition through a joint financing with local governments.

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