Newmont plans to shed workers

US mining giant Newmont Mining Corp. plans to shed workers and cut costs at its Indonesian copper and gold mine as it loses a million dollars a day in cash flow because of low output that will continue through next year.

Newmont, the world's no. 2 gold producer has revised down 2012 target production figures for its Batu Hijau Indonesian mine, to 71,000 ounces of gold from an earlier forecast of 114,000 ounces and to 170.6 million pounds of copper from 192 million previously, spokesman Rubi Purnomo told Reuters.

"We're losing cash - a million a day," Ian McGaffin, the mine's general manager, told Reuters at the mine's headquarters in the mountains of Sumbawa island in eastern Indonesia.

"It will be a relatively poor year in 2013, similar to 2012," said McGaffin, adding that 2014 and 2015 will be good, when the firm starts digging into the mine's richer core ore body again. The open pit will be around a kilometer deep when finished.

Batu Hijau produced about 282 million pounds of copper and 318,000 ounces of gold last year.

Around 400 of the Newmont mine's 8,000 workers went on strike last November, part of a wave of industrial action around the sprawling archipelago following the Freeport strike.

The number of workers at Batu Hijau mine, which also produces silver, has surged in recent years, but will now be reduced in two rounds, said McGaffin, declining to give exact numbers since the plans have not been announced.

Workers' pay also went up 25 percent in the past two years.

"We are looking at trimming costs from all facets of our business including mining and processing and support costs. This includes reviews of contract services, parts and supplies, and salaries and wages," said McGaffin.(*)