FILE PHOTO: Attendees walk through the exhibition hall beneath a Newmont banner, a gold mining company, at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) annual mining conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada March 3, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio/File Photo

(Reuters) -Gold miner Newmont is planning to cut jobs in a sweeping cost-cutting drive, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday citing people familiar with the matter.

The miner did not specify the number of jobs it intends to cut, but it has set a target of reducing costs by $300 per ounce which could lead to thousands of lay-offs, according to the report.

Newmont wants to be "closer in line with its lowest-cost peers", the report said.

In the quarter ended June 30, Newmont reported all-in-sustaining costs, an industry metric reflecting total expenses, of $1,593 per ounce for gold, up 2% from a year earlier.

Last year, the miner announced plans to divest non-core assets, trim workforce and cut debt following its multi-billion dollar acquisition of Australian firm Newcrest.

As of December 31, 2024, Newmont had 22,200 employees and about 20,400 people were working as contractors.

The report added Newmont had already started informing some staff about redundancies, with executives and division managers holding calls over job cuts and other cost-cutting plans, including potentially curbing long-term incentives.

Newmont did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Vallari Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)