Newmont writes down goldmines, cuts jobs

US goldminer Newmont has made heavy write-downs against its Australian mines - Boddington and Tanami - totalling $US1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) due to the slump in the gold price.

The group is in the process of cutting its global workforce by a third as it seeks to ensure it can survive the downturn.

Locally, 38 jobs were cut at the regional head office in Perth in June, 29 have been cut at the Tanami mine since the end of June, and 27 cut at Boddington over the past fortnight.

A further 80 jobs are to be cut at Boddington by the end of September, a spokesman for the company said. The mine is the largest goldmine in Australia, and one of the newest. The job losses do not include further positions cut by contractors.

The write-downs, which total $US2 billion in all, come as other global miners such as Goldcorp have also made heavy provisions against some of their higher-cost mines amid pessimism over the near-term outlook for the gold price.