Manhattan had originally planned to build a US$405mn base and precious metals mine at Tambogrande but announced last week that its shareholders had approved a proposal to sell off all the company's Peruvian assets and interests...Manhattan made the decision to leave due to Peruvian state mining company Centromin's decision to terminate Manhattan's option for Tambogrande in December 2003, citing the company's failure to meet certain conditions of the contact..."The company was trying hard to find a major partner which would allow us to qualify for those conditions. The trouble for us was that we weren't able to find a partner like that because the social conditions were so anti-mining that nobody wanted to touch it," Guest [Manhattan Minerals EO and president Dr Peter Guest] said.