CORRECTED-OFFICIAL-Indonesia, Newmont unit agree stake sale

(Newmont corrected its statement in fifth para, to say PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, not foreign shareholders, will grant a payment)

By Nurul Chayati

MATARAM, Indonesia, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Three local governments in Indonesia will pay $391 million for a 10 percent stake in a local unit of Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), officials involved in the deal said on Friday.

The decision should speed up the resolution of a divestment dispute between the government and the foreign owners of PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, which runs the Batu Hijau copper and gold mine in Sumbawa island.

"We agree to pay for the 10 percent stake within a year. We have signed the sales purchase agreement today," said Andi Hadianto, spokesman for the West Nusa Tenggara provincial government which is involved in the deal, in a telephone text message to Reuters.

Hadianto is also a director of PT Multi Daerah Bersaing, a consortium made up of the governments of West Nusa Tenggara province, West Sumbawa regency and Sumbawa regency -- the three areas where the mine is located -- and financing firm Multicapital. A Newmont spokesman confirmed the terms of the divestment in a text message to Reuters.

"PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara will also grant $38 million as a goodwill gesture to the local governments which will be used for community development after the payment for the stake is completed," Newmont spokesman Rubi Purnomo said in his message.

The value of the stake was in line with an arbitration court ruling at the end of March, although the local governments had been trying to negotiate a lower price.

An arbitration court in late March ordered the foreign shareholders of PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara to sell part of their stake to local investors or to the government within six months, resolving a long-running dispute over ownership.