Gold Fields converting MPSA into FTAA

(Updated 9:48 p.m., Jan. 10, 2013) Gold Fields Phils. Inc. is in the process of converting its existing Mineral Production and Sharing Agreement (MPSA) into a Financial and Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) to consummate a $340-million deal for the Far Southeast Project, the miner said.

 

The deal will increase Gold Fields' shares in the gold project from 40 percent to 60 percent.

 

A subsidiary of South Africa's Gold Fields Ltd., Gold Fields Phils. bought into the project with initial payments of $44 million and $66 million to Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co.

 

“We need the FTAA so we can increase company shares to majority,” communications officer Marionne Ruiz said Tuesday.

 

The Far Southeast Project is inside an existing mining camp near two other of Lepanto's mines. Drilling indicates the presence of a large, concealed gold-copper mineralized porphyry system.

 

The company is also in the process of obtaining a Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) from the National Commission Indigenous Peoples.

 

“...Far Southeast Gold Resources Inc., currently operates under [an MPSA] and is also pursuing process of securing the [FPIC] in connection with its pending application for conversion of this MPSA into the FTAA,” Ruiz said in a letter to GMA News Online. — BM/VS, GMA News