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A representative of the West Nusa Tenggara local government consortium seeking to buy a stake in PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara said on Monday that the group would take a back seat to PT Multicapital, an affiliated company of the Bakrie group, in an effort to buy shares of NNT from its US-based parent company, Newmont Mining.

The move suggests that the local governments have given up their right to participate in negotiating with Newmont or approving other financing partners.

“The local governments want to purchase the entire 31 percent stake in NNT [being divested],” West Nusa Tenggara Governor Muhammad Zainul Majdi said on Monday. “We notified the central government of our plan today so that our local people will get the maximum benefit from the deal.”

Majdi said the consortium had agreed that Multicapital would finance the 10 percent stake that must be divested by Newmont by September. A further 21 percent may also be available for purchase once the central government and Newmont finalized the stake price.

“We will finance the 10 percent stake through Multicapital, and we will get the other 21 percent from other partners if [Multicapital] cannot provide it,” he said.

The governments of West Nusa Tenggara province and the districts of West Sumbawa and Sumbawa established a joint-venture company, PT Daerah Maju Bersaing, to buy the NNT shares.

Dileep Srivastava, vice president for investor relations at PT Bumi Resources, said in a text message on Monday that funding for the stake purchase would be arranged by Multicapital.

“Bumi has an about 5 percent minority stake in Multicapital,” he said. “I believe the other partner is Bakrie Capital Industries.”

“Bumi’s interest is in the operations [of the mine],” he added.

From 2007 to as early as last month, Srivastava had denied that either Bumi or any other Bakrie company was interested in purchasing shares of NNT.

Meanwhile, Sofyan Djalil, the state-owned enterprises minister, said the government did not appear interested in giving SOEs a chance to buy the stake.

“Until now the central government has expressed no preference for SOEs,” Sofyan said, “and the local governments did not ask us to join their consortium.”

Speaking about the price negotiations with Newmont, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said the government was hoping to wind up a deal for the 31 percent stake “within a week.”

In a memorandum of understanding signed by the consortium and Mulitcapital on Saturday, the two parties agreed to split revenue from the stake 25-75, respectively.