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The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said the government was still interested in buying the final stake in PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, but for well below the $444 million asking price.

“We want [the price] to be lower than $400 million,” Bambang Setiawan, director general of minerals, coal and geothermal at the ministry, said on Sunday.

He added that government negotiators were meeting with US mining giant Newmont about the divestment.

Bambang’s statement is at odds with an earlier one by Muhammad Said Didu, secretary at the State Enterprises Ministry, who said last month that the 7 percent stake being sold by Newmont was too small for the government to bother with.

Newmont, which operates the lucrative Batu Hijau copper and gold mine in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, is required to complete the divestment of 51 percent of its stake in local unit NNT by the end of the year.

Newmont sold 20 percent to PT Pukuafu Indah in 1986 and then divested an additional 24 percent in two deals last year with PT Multi Daerah Bersaing — a consortium made up of the Bakrie group’s PT Multicapital and the local governments of West Nusa Tenggara, Sumbawa and West Sumbawa — which paid a total of $884 million for the stake.

But the Bakrie-led consortium also has eyes on the final 7 percent of NNT to be divested. Executives as the consortium said in May that MDB was willing to pay $400 million for the stake.

Yanuar Rizky, an analyst at the Institute for the Development of Economics and Finance, said the government needed to get serious or risk losing out again as it did last year.

“The central government was beaten to the punch by MDB because it took too long negotiating,” he said. “If they were to hurry and be serious about it, they should be able to acquire the stake. But they should bump up their offer to more than $400 million.”

He added that clashing statements from government agencies did little to help its cause.

“Conflicting statements regarding the government’s effort to purchase a stake in NNT reflect the government’s institutions’ lack of consistency, and it also shows that their relationship lacks harmony,” he said.

The divestment process has been long and controversial, with NNT suitor Pukuafu this month demanding that Newmont invalidate its stake sale to MDB, arguing that it had rights to it.

Pukuafu said it had an agreement with Newmont to buy an additional 31 percent stake but the miner denied the deal, resulting in a flurry of lawsuits.

The South Jakarta District Court ruled in Pukuafu’s favor in December, requiring NNT to annul MDB’s purchases and allow Pukuafu to acquire the 31 percent stake. In a June 29 reply to a Pukuafu request to implement the ruling, the Ministry of Justice said it would force NNT’s hand.