Xstrata has bought a 17.83 per cent stake in Indophil Resources for A$82m (£38m), potentially blocking a management buy-out of the Australian copper miner.

Indophil’s main asset is a 34 per cent stake in the Tampakan project in the Philippines, thought to be one of the world’s largest unexploited sources of copper. Xstrata already owns 62.5 per cent of Tampakan, but is trying to gain full control of the project in order to speed up its development.