Weak gold prices, Australian charge drive Newmont’s $2bn loss

Cecilia Jamasmie | July 26, 2013 | 1:55 pm Precious Metals Top Companies Australia Europe Latin America Gold 
Weak gold prices, Australian charge drive Newmont's $2bn loss

Second-largest gold producer Newmont Mining Corp. (NYSE:NEM) posted Friday a surprising $2 billion second-quarter loss after a major plunge in gold prices and an impairment charge related to two Australian mines.

The miner said the $1.8bn writedown was driven mainly by impairments of property, plant and mine development and other long-term assets at Boddington in Western Australia and Tanami in the Northern Territory.

The Denver-based company, which is in the process of trimming its global workforce by a third in response to weaker bullion prices and rising costs, also said sales declined 11% to $1.99 billion.

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“All our operations are actively reviewing costs in response to a lower gold price/higher cost environment,” Newmont said in a statement. “We expect this may result in a reduced scope of work in some areas and a possible reduction in employees and contractors.

In June, the company slashed 38 positions, mostly in support services roles, at its regional office in Perth, adding that it plans to eliminate about a third of its Colorado workforce.

Newmont’s stock was down 1.2% to $29.7 at 10:19 ET.

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4 Comments

  • Apple

    Which will be the first major mining to fold or be taken over in this present environment.

  • TB007

    They only trimmed the dead wood in Perth, now they need to look at the Tanami HR team, bunch of clowns!!!

  • Mining Man

    The operation at Tanami is a joke. I have never seen so many people trying to justify their jobs there. Spent close on 20 million on the shaft project, setup all the buildings, employed managers and admin staff, then without warning pulled the pin on the whole project. Problem was to many people who at the end of the day had no idea how to run a project. Instead of reveiwing stage 1 before starting stage 2 and so on they just kept going making one mistake after another. Absolute disgrace and if you are reading this and are a Newmont shareholder you should be asking a lot of questions. Money wastage like I have never seen before. Head of safety for the shaft project who had 2 people under him was earning over $200k a year only problem was they had no employees to look after, just a big expensive joke. In fact there were so many safety people on site we never knew who was who.No I am not a disgruntled Newmont employee, I was one of the contractors on site at the time and had a first hand look at what was going on.

    • I was there also

      Having been there at the same time I agree 100% with the above comments.

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