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recent workers union strike at the Batu Hijau mine, operated by a local unit of US mining giant Newmont Mining Corporation, may last until Aug. 10, with the company still unclear to what extend this will affect
production.

“We were told by the union the strike will be held until Aug. 10,” said Kasan Mulyono, a public relations manager at PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (PT NNT), which is Newmont’s subsidiary operating the mine.

Starting Monday, workers at the mine carried out the strike demanding overtime fee payment.

The exact number of workers involved in the protest was not clear as PT NNT and the union claimed different figures.

Kasan said there were between 300 and 400 workers took a part in the strike, but the union claimed the participants were far more than that.

“The operation has been halted, because nearly 3,000 workers carry out strikes,” PT NNT’s labor union deputy Zainuddin Wanden said.

Kasan said the mine operation ran normally on Monday, but he did not explain what would happen to the production if the union carried out a strike until next week as it has said.

“We cannot say whether the production will be affected or not [after a week of strikes], but as of [Monday], the production activity has run normally,” he said.

The Batu Hijau mine produces gold, copper and silver. As of the end of 2009, the Batu Hijau mine’s estimate reserves were 11.47 billion pounds of copper, 11.57 million ounces of gold and 40.97 million ounces of silver. In 2010, the NNT set a target to produce 573 million pounds of copper; 777,000 ounces of gold; and 2.6 million ounces of silver.

In the first half of 2010, the gold production increased to 335,000 ounces from 179,000 ounces in
the same period in 2009. As for the copper, the production increased to £278 million from £195 million.

In early July, the West Nusa Tenggara provincial office of the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry ordered PT NNT to pay Rp 126 billion (US$13.8 million) in overtime wages, some of which has been outstanding since June 2008, to 1,919 of its employees.

In its press statement, PT NNT said it was still seeking legal certainty regarding the issue. “The NNT, consistent with our values, will abide by all final legal decisions including those which may apply to overtime payments,” the NNT’s general manager of operations Darren Hall said. According to the statement, the NNT and the union had begun negotiations discussing the matter on July 22. “The NNT remains willing to continue negotiations to reach a fair and responsible resolution on this issue,” Hall said.