M&A

30 November, 2009

UPDATE 2-Taseko to sell stake in mine for C$180 mln; shares jump

* Says Japan's Sojitz to own 25 percent of Gibraltar mine

* Taseko shares jump as much as 17 pct (Adds details, background)

Nov 30 (Reuters) - Canada's Taseko Mines Ltd (TKO.TO) said it intends to sell a 25 percent stake in its Gibraltar copper/molybdenum mine to Japanese trading house Sojitz Corp (2768.T) for C$180 million ($170.5 million), sending its shares up 17 percent to a 52-week high.

Vancouver-based Taseko, which signed a letter of intent with Sojitz to establish a joint venture by early 2010, said it would hold 75 percent stake in the mine.

Taseko, a mineral exploration company, said the deal would help it to develop its Prosperity gold/copper project. It recently increased mineral reserves in Prosperity by 70 percent.

The Prosperity project in south-central British Columbia is an undeveloped gold-copper deposit with one billion tonnes of measured and indicated resources, containing 13.3 million ounces of gold and 5.3 billion pounds of copper.

Sojitz, a diversified trading company with interests in machinery, energy and metals, has a number of equity investments in the British Columbia mining industry, including a 25 percent stake in Thompson Creek Metals' (TCM.TO) (TC.N) Endako molybdenum mine.

Shares of Taseko were up 40 Canadian cents, or 12 percent, at C$3.60 Monday afternoon on the Toronto Stock Exchange. They touched a high of C$3.74 earlier in the session. ($1=1.056 Canadian Dollar) (Reporting by R. Manikandan and Amit Kumar in Bangalore; Editing by Ratul Ray Chaudhuri) ((r.manikandan@thomsonreuters.com; within U.S. +1 646 223 8780; outside U.S. +91 80 4135 5800; Reuters Messaging: r.manikandan.reuters.com@reuters.net))

Source: http://www.reuters.com