RPT-Mining magnate Friedland buys into Australia copper prospector

(Repeats story first published late on Thursday; no change to text)

SYDNEY, Feb 27 (Reuters) - A move by Robert Friedland's High Power Exploration to buy a stake in copper prospector Apollo Minerals AON.AX marks a further inroad by the mining entrepreneur into Australia's small-cap resources sector.

U.S.-born billionaire Friedland is best known for his discovery of the giant Voisey's Bay nickel deposit in Canada and orchestrating the sale of Mongolia's massive Oyu Tolgoi copper mine, with his investments closely followed by market participants.

High Power Exploration will make an initial investment in Apollo of A$1 million ($896,200) at 2 Australian cents per share, with an option to subscribe for a further A$1.4 million worth of shares, Apollo said on Thursday. News Search ID:nWNBS00CEQ

The two investments would give Friedland's company about a 20 percent stake in Apollo as its sets out to find large-sized copper deposits in the Australian outback.

Last year, privately-held High Power Exploration agreed to form a partnership with another Australian prospector, Clancy Exploration Ltd , worth about A$1 million.

($1 = 1.1159 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Jim Regan; Editing by Joseph Radford)

((jim.regan@thomsonreuters.com)(+612 9373-1814)(Reuters Messaging: jim.regan.reuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: AUSTRALIA FRIEDLAND/