Govt asks Newmont to lower share price

The government has asked PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT), a copper and gold mining unit of US mining giant Newmont Mining Corp. to lower its share prices especially those which should have been divested in 2008, Kontan reported on Wednesday.

?The prices of shares allocated for divestment in 2008 and 2009 should be at least the same,? Bambang Setiawan, the director general of the coal and geothermal at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said.

?The price of NNT?s share in 2008 is too high,? he said.

NNNT offered a price of $109 million for the 3 percent shares in 2006, $282 million for the 7 percent shares to be divested in 2007, $426 million for the 7 percent shares for 2008, and $348 million for the 7 percent shares to be divested this year.

Bambang said that the government?s team would soon meet NNT executives to discuss the possible revision of the share prices. ?The government?s appraisers are still calculating the fair price of the shares,? he said. (*)