Nov 26 (Reuters) - Newmont Mining Corp said discussions with firms potentially interested in acquiring the U.S. company's Indonesian assets have not met its "sales criteria".
The owner of Indonesia's largest listed oil and gas company, Medco Energi Internasional, Arifin Panigoro, was seeking government approval to acquire a 76 percent stake in Newmont's Indonesian unit, resources minister Rizal Ramli said on Wednesday.
Panigoro, who was looking to diversify his investments amid declining oil prices, valued the stake at $2.2 billion, Ramli said. A statement from Ramli's office said Panigoro also planned to develop a 500,000 tonne smelter as part of the plan.
"Newmont receives expressions of interest in our assets from time to time, and consistent with our goal to improve our portfolio and balance sheet, we may consider proposals to acquire our assets," said Omar Jabara, the company's spokesman.
"To date, no discussions related to our assets in Indonesia have met all of our sales criteria, which include fully committed funding representing fair value," he said, without naming any companies.
Newmont, Indonesia's largest copper miner after Freeport-McMoRan's local unit, is forecast by the Indonesian government to produce 500,000 tonnes of copper and gold concentrate this year from its Batu Hijau mine.
Medco Energi corporate secretary Imron Gazali said the company had just appointed a new board of directors and was unable to provide a comment on the matter.
"The budget and work program for next year is still being discussed by the new board," Gazali said.
Medco Energi's shares were up 17 percent at midday on Thursday.
(Reporting by Nicole Mordant in VANCOUVER, and Fransiska Nangoy, Bernadette Christina Munthe and Hidayat Setiaji in JAKARTA; Writing by Randy Fabi; Editing by Tom Hogue)