IRN Indophil Fpo

Indophil Resources Ltd. (IRN.AU) Friday said the sale process of its 34.23% stake in the copper-gold Tampakan project in the Philippines was ongoing, with a number of interested parties signing confidentiality agreements to enter its data room.

"The interested parties are the tier-one corporates and the tier-one sovereign wealth funds. You're looking at the big end of town," a spokesman for Indophil told Dow Jones Newswires.

Analysts have tentatively pegged the development cost for Tampakan at US$3 billion, but that is likely to go up given the size of the project.

Indophil gave the update on the sale after Tampakan's joint venture partners announced they had given the go-ahead for a final feasibility study of the giant project in southern Mindanao.

"The decision to develop a major copper mine at Tampakan will depend on the outcomes of the feasibility study, which will examine the economic, social and environmental viability of this project," Sagittarius Mines Inc. President Peter Forrestal said in a statement. Diversified miner Xstrata PLC (XTA.LN) holds a 62.5% in Tampakan through subsidiary Sagittarius Mines.

The remaining 3.27% is owned by private investment group Alsons Corp.

Sagittarius said its funding shareholders approved the $74 million feasibility study which is expected to be submitted to the government by the second quarter of 2010.

Xstrata wasn't immediately available to comment on the sale process. The Anglo-Swiss miner also holds a 19.9% stake in Indophil, which last year signed a memorandum of intent with Alsons to sell its stake.

Xstrata voted against that transaction but shareholders in November approved it. No deal has been struck since.

The feasibility study targets an initial 20-year mine life at an average annual production of 340,000 metric tons of copper and 350,000 troy ounces of gold, with a cash cost estimate of less than 46 U.S. cents a pound after gold credits.

Based on the current schedule, the feasibility study is expected to be submitted to the government by the second quarter of 2010, Sagittarius said in a statement.

Engineering and construction company Bechtel and Xstrata will lead the feasibility study.

-By Elisabeth Behrmann, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-8272-4689 elisabeth.behrmann@dowjones.com

(Jeffrey Sparshott in London contributed to this article.)

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