Strike ends at US miner Freeport's Indonesia site

Workers have ended a strike at a huge Indonesian gold and copper mine owned by US firm Freeport-McMoRan after an 11-day walkout that hit operations, the company said Monday.

More than 1,000 workers, mostly truck operators, went on strike on September 28 at Grasberg, one of the world's biggest gold and copper mines, located in the mountains of eastern Papua province.

The workers' union said they were angry about differences in bonus payments given to them and an engineering team at the site.

The strike hit operations at Grasberg's open-pit mine but an underground mine at the site was unaffected, and a processing plant continued operating at limited capacity.

Riza Pratama, a spokesman for Freeport's Indonesian unit, said in a statement the company and union on Saturday "reached an agreement to end the work stoppage at the Grasberg open-pit mine.

"As a result, normal operations have resumed at the Grasberg open-pit mine."

He did not provide details of the terms of the agreement.

Grasberg has been plagued by strikes, accidents and production problems in recent years.

In 2011, a three-month strike crippled production at the mine, and workers only halted the industrial action once Freeport agreed to a huge pay rise.

sr/jah