NEWMONT Mining said today Chinese demand for gold bullion would remain strong this year, despite historically high prices for the metal. "I'm forecasting that we're still going to see strong investment demand from China," said Philip Stephenson, regional group executive, operations, Newmont Asia Pacific. "We saw a 20 per cent increase in investment demand (from China) last year, and we are expecting similar demand levels in 2010," Mr Stephenson told reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference in Perth. The price of gold soared by roughly 25 per cent in 2009 as nervous investors sought safe haven assets as a hedge against inflation and depreciation of paper currencies. The metal was hovering around $US1100 per troy ounce, off its record high of around $US1220 per ounce from early December, and Newmont was "cautiously optimistic that it will continue to migrate north", he said. Turning to mergers and acquisitions, Mr Stephenson declined to say whether Newmont was looking seriously at buying companies or assets in the Australasian region. But with Newmont's big Boddington gold mine in Western Australia recently opened, "we are obviously spending quite considerable resources looking at projects not just in Australia but around the world," he said. In Australia, the US-based company has several early-stage exploration projects near existing mine sites. However, these were more likely to extend mine life, rather than boost Newmont's production levels, he said.

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