The First Pacific Group of Hong Kong is interested in participating in the $5.2-billion Tampakan copper-gold mine in Mindanao through the project’s minority shareholder Indophil Resources NL of Australia.

“We are considering an investment in Tampakan through Indophil,” First Pacific Co. Ltd. managing director Manuel V. Pangilinan said in an interview with reporters on Tuesday.

Indophil owns roughly a third of the South Cotobato project, the largest untapped gold and copper deposit in Southeast Asia.

Pangilinan did not say if First Pacific is in active talks with Indophil, a company listed in Australia and counts as shareholders the Alsons Group owned by the Alcantara family.

The investment is expected to complement First Pacific’s other major mining asset in the country, Philex Mining Corp. First Pacific owns 46 percent of Philex, which has mineral projects in Benguet province in Luzon and Surigao del Norte in Mindanao.

In an earlier regulatory filing, Philex said Tampakan is among a range of investment options within the country and abroad.

At present, Indophil owns 34.2 percent of the Tampakan project, with a right to acquire an additional 3.27 percent. The Tamapakan project is majority owned by Sagittarius Mines Inc., the local unit of Swiss mining giant Xstrata Plc.  

China’s Zijin Mining Group Co. earlier dropped its bid to acquire Indophil’s share in Tampakan for 545 million Australian dollars, after the South Cotobato provincial government imposed a ban on open-pit mining.

The ban is being reviewed by the present administration.