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Bakrie-led venture picks up more shares in Newmont
A business consortium owned by one of the many investment arms of the Bakrie family and the government of West Nusa Tenggara has acquired another 7 percent of the shares in copper and gold producer PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT)
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business consortium owned by one of the many investment arms of the Bakrie family and the government of West Nusa Tenggara has acquired another 7 percent of the shares in copper and gold
producer PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT).
The consortium, PT Multi Daerah Bersaing (MDB), paid on Monday US$229.4 million for the stake from Newmont Indonesia Limited, a subsidiary of the US mining giant Newmont Mining Corp, and Nusa Tenggara Mining Corporation, a subsidiary of Japan-based Sumitomo Corporation.
“The divestment of the 7 percent stake in 2009 has been done,” said NNT spokesman Rubi Waprasa Purnomo, confirming this via a text message on Wednesday.
The foreign owners of NNT are required under a 1986 contract with the government to divest 31 percent of shares in NNT to the central government, local governments, state firms or designated local private firms by this year.
With the acquisition, Newmont Indonesia Limited and Nusa Tenggara Mining Corporation own a combined 56 percent of the shares in NNT, while PT Pukuafu Indah owns 20 percent and MDB 24 percent.
MDB, is 75 percent owned by PT Multicapital, a subsidiary of the Bakrie family’s jewel-in-the-crown company PT Bumi Resources, and 25 percent owned by a company representing three regional administrations in West Nusa Tenggara.
With the latest payment, MDB has in total spent $867.2 million on the acquisition of the 24
percent stake.
As required by their contract with the government, Newmont and Sumitomo must divest another 7 percent stake in NNT in 2010.
“We are still evaluating the value of the 7 percent stake. We expect to submit it to the government before March 31,” Rubi said.
NNT operates Indonesia’s second largest copper mine Batu Hijau in West Nusa Tenggara. The mine also produces gold. NNT said earlier that mine output would drop significantly in 2011 as the company would continue mining lower grade mineral ore.
The government said the lower copper and gold production from the Batu Hijau mining operation would have a negative impact on the resulting national mining output for the two minerals for several years to come.
The government estimates copper production will drop from 1,016,949 tons, which is the production estimation for this year, to about 644,098 tons in 2011, representing a drop of 37 percent.
As for gold, it is thought that gold production may fall from this year’s estimated figure of 115,998 kilograms to 91,171 kilograms in 2011, a drop of 21 percent.
