TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canada's Inmet Mining has given partner LS Nikko, of Korea, an extra month to decide whether it will take a 20% or 30% stake in Inmet's Cobre Panama copper/gold project in Panama and hopes to have the final partnership structure and funding in place for the mine by the end of this year, CEO Jochen Tilk said on Wednesday.

LS-Nikko and Inmet signed an agreement in October that gave the Korean company an option to buy 20% of the Cobre Panama project, and until January 31 to decide to increase the option stake to 30%.

While the company felt it was appropriate to grant a request for an extension of the deadline to February 28, it is undecided whether any further extensions would be given, if asked for, Tilk said.

LS-Nikko, which is understood to be negotiating with potential partners of its own in Korea, has not yet indicated whether it will need more time and Tilk said he does not know whether the Korean company will ultimately opt for a 20% or 30% interest in Cobre Panama.

In the meantime, Inmet needs finality on the option agreement so that it can pursue its own negotiations with potential partners and make plans to finance its share of the project.

The Canadian firm continues to hold talks with a number of parties interested in the project, but has not ruled out maintaining its own interest at 70%, should LS-Nikko opt for the additional 10% in the project, Tilk said.

“We have got lots of time. We will look at a universe of options that ranges from maintaining that interest within the company to looking at partnerships and some other options to lower our exposure,” he said.

The company has also looked at selling a gold stream from Cobre Panama to raise finance for the project and Tilk said in December he was talking to potential customers about signing concentrate offtake agreements in exchange for help with financing the project.

Altogether, he wants to have the ownership structure – including any partners Inmet plans to bring on – and the funding for the project finalised by the end of this year, Tilk said on Wednesday.

The next milestone for Cobre Panama will be the publication of details of the front-end engineers and design study, which Inmet plans to announce before the end of March.

The study will include updated capital cost estimates, operating cost estimates, mineral reserves, and other information that will provide insight into the economics of the project.

Inmet plans to appoint an engineering, procurement and construction contractor this year to start basic engineering on the project, which it took control of in 2008 by acquiring Petaquilla Copper and buying Teck Resources' 30% stake in the asset.

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