Hundreds of workers at Freeport-McMoRan's Indonesian mine have gone on strike demanding better pay, the US firm said Wednesday, in the latest industrial action to hit the operation. Some 1,100 workers, employed by contractors and not directly by the company, downed tools on Tuesday at the Grasberg mine in eastern Papua province, one of the world's largest gold and copper mines, Freeport's Indonesian unit said.

Global mining titan BHP Billiton on Monday announced the sale of its Pinto Valley mining operation and rail assets in the United States to Capstone Mining Corp for US$650 million. In a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange, BHP said it had signed a definitive cash agreement with Canadian base metal miner Capstone. The deal for the open-pit copper mining operation east of Phoenix in the Globe-Miami district of Arizona is subject to regulatory approval and expected to be completed in the second half of 2013.

Russia's Rusal, the world's biggest aluminium producer, on Monday posted a worse-than-expected net loss of $337 million (258 million euros) for the full year 2012, mainly weighed down by its stake in the troubled mining group Norilsk Nickel. Last month, Rusal said it expected to report a 2012 net loss of $55 million, compared with a previous net profit of $237 million in 2011, but was later forced to revise its forecast after Norilsk Nickel -- in which it is a 27.8 percent shareholder -- recorded a 41 percent drop in 2012 net profit, to $2.1 billion.

LONDON (Reuters) - Miner Anglo American's <AAL.L> new chief executive told shareholders on Friday he had begun a three-month strategy review, promising that after years of largesse across the industry, the mining group would "spend within its means".