San Miguel Acquires 10.1% Stake In Australian Miner Indophil

Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC.PH) Friday said it acquired a 10.1% stake in Indophil Resources NL (IRN.AU), the Australian miner which owns a 37.5% stake in the Tampakan copper-gold project in southern Philippines.

The share placement agreement, involving 48 million new shares, was executed for a financial consideration of US$40 million.

Following the agreement, San Miguel will conduct a legal and financial due diligence on an exclusive basis, the company said in a filing to the stock exchange.

The Tampakan project, controlled by Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata PLC (XTA.LN), has a total resource estimate of 2.4 billion metric tons, with a grade of 0.6% copper and 0.2% grams a ton of gold.

The development cost of the project, touted to become the Philippines' biggest mining project, is estimated at US$5.2 billion.

Last month, local miner Philex Mining Corp. (PX.PH), controlled by businessman Manuel Pangilinan, said it was in talks with Indophil to acquire the Australian miner's stake in the Tampakan project.

In the same filing, San Miguel said its board approved the declaration of a cash dividend of PHP1.50 a share for holders of its preferred shares.

The record date was set as Nov. 2, while the payment date will be Nov. 22.

-By Rhea Sandique-Carlos, Dow Jones Newswires; 632-848-5051; [e-mail]