Australia's Superpit Gold Mine Workers Evacuated Following Earthquake

North American gold miners Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM) and Barrick Gold Corp. (ABX) said Tuesday they have evacuated workers from their Kalgoorlie Superpit operation following an earthquake at the Western Australian mining town.

"All personnel are safe," said Russell Cole, general manager of KCGM, which operates the mine on behalf of the joint owners.

Underground crew from the Mount Charlotte mine have been brought to surface, and will remain there until a safety assessment of the area has been conducted, Cole said in a statement.

"Open pits have suspended operations and a full geotechnical assessment is underway. This could take several hours," he said.

A KCGM spokeswoman said that processing operations at the Superpit, which produces up to 800,000 ounces a year of gold, are also suspended, though this is the result of a scheduled 5-day shutdown.

Meanwhile, a Barrick Gold spokeswoman said that a processing mill at Barrick's 100%-owned Kanowna operations has been shut down and workers evacuated from mine sites pending a safety assessment.

All personnel are accounted for, she said.

The Kanowna mill processes ore from the Kanowna Belle, Raleigh and Bullant mine sites.

Elsewhere, a spokesman for Mincor Resources NL (MCR.AU) said the Australian nickel miner had felt no impact from the earthquake at its Kambalda sites and production was continuing.

-By Stephen Bell, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; 61-8-9244-4243; [e-mail]