Newmont Waihi Gold, a wholly owned subsidiary of global miner Newmont Mining Corp., on Tuesday announced of impending job cuts at its gold mine sites in New Zealand and Australia.

About 20 staff and contractors are expected to be slashed from the New Zealand Waihi site operations, the company said in a statement. The New Zealand gold mine site has about 400 employees.

Staff at its four mines, three in Western Australia and another in the North Territory, as well as the regional headquarters in Australia has also been notified this week of likely redundancies, it added. The company however did not provide exact numbers of job cuts for the Australian operations. Newmont's

In addition to job cuts, Newmont Waihi Gold will likewise significantly scale back much of its exploration programme.

Sefton Darby, Newmont Waihi Gold's external affairs manager, said the cuts are part of a wider package of job cuts across all Newmont sites globally and does not in any way relate to the fire, the culprit of which was a truck engine, that occurred in July this year that trapped 28 men in the underground mine. All men were rescued before midday.

"Our costs have been going up far faster than the price of gold for the past five years. That means our margins have come down substantially in that time and we have to cut costs in order to remain a viable company," Mr Darby said.

"The decision to reduce our workforce is not one that we take lightly and we will be working closely with all staff to help them through this difficult period," Newmont Waihi Gold's General Manager of Operations Glen Grindlay said.

"But the reality is that over the past five years our operational costs such as materials and labour have risen far faster than gold prices."

The company assured that where possible the company offer changes of jobs instead of redundancies. There are actually some staff already offered jobs at other global Newmont sites.

Newmont Waihi Gold is wholly owned by Newmont Mining Corporation, a leading gold producer with operations and exploration projects on five continents, based in Denver, Colorado, United States of America. Newmont Waihi Gold manages the Martha, Favona and Trio operations in Waihi, New Zealand and has an active exploration programme in the region.