Newmont Indonesia unit sees lower copper,gold output - Minerals
U.S. mining group Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday that copper and gold output from its Indonesian unit may be lower this year because it is mining lower grade ores.
PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, which operates the Batu Hijau copper and gold mine in Sumbawa, eastern Indonesia, expects to produce 345-365 million pounds of copper ore this year, a fall of around 22 percent from 453 million pounds in 2007, Rubi Purnomo, the company's spokesman, said.
The company expects to produce 330,000-365,000 ounces of gold ore this year, about 33 percent lower than 518,000 ounces in 2007, Rubi said.
"We are mining in a different part of the pit that has lower grade ore than the ore we were mining in 2007," Rubi said. "It is part of the normal cycle in mining operations for the type of ore we have in Batu Hijau."
But he said the company had just begun a large stripping campaign to get back to the higher grade ores in 2010. Newmont was in the spotlight recently after the Indonesian government threatened to terminate the unit's mining contract as it failed to sell shares quickly enough to local investors.
Early this month, both the government and Newmont filed a case against each other in an arbitration court after talks between both parties on divestment collapsed.
More China Business: Most
Popular Materials | Fresh
Materials | Shanghai Insurance at FreeTemplatesOnline.com | Add | Recommend | Comments | Print | Close