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MANILA, Philippines -- Australian miner OceanaGold is in talks with South Korea's Hyundai Group to help fund its $320-million Didipio gold and copper project in the Philippines, a senior government official said on Thursday.

Hyundai is among several investors OceanaGold is negotiating with since putting the mining project on hold in December due to funding difficulties, Horacio Ramos, director of the mines and geosciences bureau, told reporters.

He declined to name the other potential investors.

Ramos said in October that Hyundai was looking at investing in mining projects in the Philippines and was particularly interested in copper, nickel and iron.

The Hyundai group, which includes the world's fifth-largest carmaker, Hyundai Motor, also has interests in logistics, financial services and transport systems.

Lito Atienza, the secretary overseeing the mining sector, said his agency has given OceanaGold up to six months to resolve its funding woes.

"They're requesting for reasonable time. We're willing to wait -- three months, or maybe six months maximum. After that we just have to act," said Atienza, without specifying what action the government planned to take.

OceanaGold has spent more than $120 million in Didipio and is looking for another investor to fund the remaining $200 million needed for the project to take off, said Ramos, adding the company is unlikely to let go of the project.

Higher costs for equipment and raw materials have increased the total cost of the Didipio project in the northern Nueva Vizcaya province to $320 million in May last year from $155 million in 2006.

The Australian miner had said it would wait for the global financial crisis to pass so it will be able to secure funds needed to finish project construction.

The company had already postponed start of commercial production by nearly a year to January 2010 even before it announced putting the entire project on hold in December.

Didipio was expected to produce around 120,000 ounces of gold and 15,000 tons of copper concentrate annually in its first 10 years of production.

Investments in the Philippine mining sector, one of the world's biggest and most profitable in the 1970s, have slowed to a trickle as legal uncertainties, disputes with local partners, communist insurgencies and opposition from the Catholic Church have turned off foreign miners.

• Madagascar needs OFWs--recruiters
• Dollar rebounds after sharp fall
• Economic crisis fears return

• China wants new global monetary system
• Solons caution gov’t on privatization