TAGUM, Philippines : Communist guerrillas Sunday shot and wounded two Philippine soldiers after an attack that saw drilling equipment owned by the Swiss-based mining giant Xstrata set on fire.

The New People's Army (NPA) struck before dawn near the town of Kiblawan on Mindanao island, where Xstrata subsidiary Sagittarius Mining Inc. is developing a major copper-gold prospect, called Tampakan.

The rebels' attack, the second in seven months, set fire to a drilling machine, said Major Armand Rico, spokesman of a Philippine Army division operating in the area.

The raiders fled south, and 12 hours later clashed with an infantry platoon which had responded to the company's appeal for help, said Major Lyndon Paniza, the commander of the pursuing military unit.

Two soldiers were wounded in the 30-minute clash near the neighbouring town of Malita, and the outgunned military unit sought air support, Paniza told AFP.

The NPA also attacked the mining site on New Year's Eve, destroying Sagittarius Mining property, in a raid that prompted the government to re-evaluate security for major projects in the promising resources sector.

The Maoist group, with more than 5,000 members, often attacks economic targets as part of efforts to raise funds through extortion.

Xstrata describes the Tampakan project as "one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits in the Southeast Asia-Western Pacific region," with estimated massive copper and gold deposits.

It expects to complete feasibility studies on the project in the second half of 2009.

- AFP /ls