Newmont 2010 Exploration Spend Likely Similar To 2008 - CEO

Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM) Chief Executive Richard O'Brien said Friday the company's exploration spending in 2010 is likely to be in line with its spend in 2008.

The miner expects to spend US$160 million on exploration in 2009 and O'Brien said this is set to rise in 2010 as the company's cashflow improves.

"With where we see the gold price, I think we can afford to spend some more next year," he told reporters after addressing the Melbourne Mining Club.

"In 2008, we spent closer to US$200 million on exploration so I could imagine going back to that sort of level."

He said the emissions trading scheme being mooted in Australia will have an impact on profit margins at Newmont's mines but in the long run other countries would follow Australia's lead, so this would become a cost across the world.

However, in the short term, Newmont would take the prospect of higher costs from a carbon tax into account when assessing marginal Australian projects in the US$50 million-US$100 million range.

"There might be some projects in Australia that we will defer because we have other projects that rise to a higher level," he said.

O'Brien said the miner has no plans for further investment in Australia in the short term but is hopeful of growing its business here in the longer term.

Newmont is still assessing the impact of a partial pitwall failure at its Batu Hijau mine in Indonesia, and O'Brien said the incident was likely to cause some delay to previously stated plans to boost output at the mine by 60% to 455 million pounds of copper concentrate in 2009.

-By Alex Wilson, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-3-9292-2094; [e-mail]