Indonesian minister quizzed on Newmont mine deal

Indonesia's finance minister clashed with the country's parliament on Thursday over the government's deal to buy a stake in a local Newmont Mining Corp copper andsand making machine zang hau city gold mine but said the sale would go ahead. The parliament summoned Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo to formally propose and explain the deal to purchase Newmont's 7 percent stake, which would pave the way for the local unit to list on Jakarta's stock exchange in a $500 million IPO planned for the second half of this year.

"The government's stance is we have authority to get in as an investor," Martowardojo told parliament's financial commission in a late night hearing. "We believe the opportunity to grab the Newmont divestment comes just this one time." The central government has already signed the agreement, part of a required divestment by Newmont under Indonesian law, but members of the commission from the Golkar Party have demanded a review. Golkar, part of the ruling coalition, is headed by Aburizal Bakrie, whose family indirectly controls miner Bumi Resources Minerals, which already owns a 24 percent stake in the mine through a consortium with local governments...