Japanese firms to aid IG in Myanmar

Joint-venture deal worth an estimated $167 million in total In need of financing and a contractor to build its proposed Monywa copper mine in Myanmar, Indochina Goldfields (ING-T) has looked to the Rising Sun.

The company has negotiated a definitive proposal from two major Japanese firms (whose names are being kept confidential until the deal is complete) to finance and build the first phase of the project. The proposed deal includes a US$90-Million loan, a US$77-Million lump-sum engineering procurement and construction contract, and a long-Term sales agreement covering copper cathode to be produced during the first 10 years of production.

An Indochina Goldfields subsidiary holds a 50% interest in a joint-venture company which, in turn, holds a 100% interest in the Monywa project. The other half is held by No. 1 Mining Enterprise, an entity wholly owned by the government of Myanmar.

The joint venture plans to develop an open-pit mine capable of producing 25,000 tonnes per year of cathode copper from the Sabetaung and Kyisintaung deposits near the town of Monywa in the central plains of Myanmar.

In a release, Indochina Goldfields President Edward Flood stated that the deal would provide the joint-venture company with the resources required to enter production within 12 months of the start of construction.

Phase 1 production from the Sabetaung and Kyisintaung deposits is projected at 25,000 tonnes (55 million lb.) of highly refined copper cathode per year, starting in 1999, at a cash operating cost of US48 cents per lb.

The board of the Monywa joint venture has 60 days to decide the fate of the proposal.