Zijin Mining Renews Offer to Buy Australia's Indophil

BEIJING, Mar. 11 -- Zijin Mining Group Co Ltd<601899><2899>, the largest listed gold miner in China, today announced that wholly-owned subsidiary Golden Resource Mining Ltd has extended the deadline for its offer to buy Australia-listed Indophil Resources, sources reported.

The gold miner said in a statement that the deadline for the deal was pushed to Apr.16, 2010 from Mar. 19, 2010. 

On Jan. 18, Golden Resource Mining submitted a tender offer to acquire the Australian firm.

On Dec. 1, 2009, Zijin Mining announced that it had signed a contract to take over the Australian firm for A$545 million. The proposed acquisition secured approval from Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board on Jan. 7.

Reportedly, at the end of last year, Indophil Resources had A$160 million in net assets and had suffered losses of A$14.84 million. The company currently holds a 34.23% stake in Philippine miner SMI and intends to purchase another 3.27%, bringing its shareholdings to 37.5%.