Southern Arc to expand Indonesian exploration portfolio

Vancouver-based junior miner Southern Arc Minerals said it was planning to aggressively increase its exploration portfolio in Indonesia.

?Along with research of the potential of historical reported mineral occurrences, negotiations are continually being conducted with various governmental and private entities in order to acquire stakeholds, whether in the form of JVs, farm-in, or contract exploration agreements, in greenfields through to more advanced projects,? the company said in a release.

Southern Arc has already possessed gold and copper exploration licenses in West and East Nusa Tenggara provinces.

Meanwhile, the company said it anticipated that the Contract of Work (CoW) on its Lombok gold exploration tenement could e finalized by the end of this year. ?The company anticipates the preliminary round of negotiations on the new 7+ generation CoW agreement will commence late this month. Accordingly, the joint central government-provincial government CoW negotiating team has been appointed. It is hoped that the CoW can be finalized before the end of the year,? said the company.

Southern Arc?s Lombok exploration area was previously held by PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, a subsidiary of the Newmont Mining Corporation. Through an agreement with Newmont, announced on January 11, 2006, Newmont relinquished the area and Southern Arc incorporated it into its CoW application area. (alex)