U.S.-based gold producer Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM) said Monday that Chinese demand for gold bullion will 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% increase in investment demand (from China) last year, and we are expecting similar demand levels in 2010," Stephenson told reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference.

The price of gold soared by roughly 25% in 2009 as nervous investors sought safe haven assets as a hedge against inflation and depreciation of paper currencies.

The metal is currently hovering around US$1,100 per troy ounce, off its record high of around US$1,220 per ounce from early December, and Newmont is "cautiously optimistic that it will continue to migrate north", he said.

Turning to mergers and acquisitions, Stephenson declined to say whether Newmont is looking seriously at buying companies or assets in the Australasian region.

But with Newmont's big Boddington gold mine in Western Australia state 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 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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