Newmont repairs Batu Hijau mine to meet production targets

Newmont Mining Corp., the world?s second-largest gold miner, completed repairs to the east wall of its copper and gold mine in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara in a bid to meet revised production targets as prices rise, The Jakarta Post reported Tuesday.

?We are trying to make our recent guidance,? said Patrick J. Hickey, the mine manager. ?Getting through the pit wall repairs will help us to do that,? he said.

Newmont said earlier that the revised mine plan will cut Newmont?s production from the Batu Hijau mine by 45 million pounds (20,412 tons) of copper and 60,000 ounces of gold this year. Newmont?s production for 2006 will be about 235 million pounds of high-grade copper and between 210,000 ounces and 240,000 ounces of gold, Hickey said.

Newmont was forced to cut production from March after radar measurements detected ?geotechnical instability? of Batu Hijau?s eastern wall, according to a March 23 statement. Too great a vertical distance between two of the mine?s levels triggered the movement, prompting risks of harder rock collapsing into the mine?s lower levels, Hickey said.

?We changed the mine plan to un-weight the upper part, our intention was to prevent a geotechnical movement,? Hickey said. ?We?ve a radar in the pit and it can look into the walls and it can see when things are moving.?

The new plan cut the eastern wall down by 150 meters over four months to last week, Hickey said.

Elsewhere Hickey said exploration at Elang, another deposit 60 kilometers west of Batu Hijau was halted after a March 19 attack by arsonists that remains under police investigation. Elang has lower-grade copper ore than Batu Hijau.

Newmont is the operator of Batu Hijau and has a 52.875 percent economic (45 percent ownership) interest.(*)