Newmont offers early retirement for workers

JAKARTA. Gold and copper mining company PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT) is offering early retirement for its workers as part of the company’s efforts to boost efficiency.

“As many as 250 employees have requested for voluntary retirement,” NNT spokesman Rubi Purnomo said recently as quoted by kontan.co.id.

NNT and Newmont Global had been carrying out measures to improve efficiency in all divisions since last year, he added.

Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s mineral exploitation director Dede Suhendra said offering voluntary early retirement might not be enough and that the miner should make it a compulsory measure because prices of the commodities remained sluggish while many of the company’s exploration projects were still going on.

“However, I believe that the measure will not disrupt the company’s performance because a big multinational company, such as NNT, would have already carried out risk assessment before coming to the decision,” he said.

Meanwhile on Thursday, NNT community relations manager Syarafuddin Jarot said the company would have to lay-off its workers if the government imposed the ban on exports of raw ores on Jan. 12, as scheduled by the 2009 Mining Law.

The company, which currently employs over 4,000 workers, is expecting the government to issue a transitional regulation to give them more time for preparations to comply with the law.