MELBOURNE: Goldminer Newcrest increased short-term bonuses to top executives more than 11-fold this year despite making another heavy loss.
Last year the miner’s top executives received between zero and only eight per cent of their short term incentives. This year most of the 15 current or recently departed executives received more than half.
Recently departed chief executive Greg Robinson received a A$1.03 million short-term bonus plus a A$1.6 million (K3.56) severance package on top of A$2 million (K4m) in base pay. Total short-term bonuses paid out were A$6.2 million (K13.8m), well above the A$544,000 (K98,108) in fiscal 2013 and A$3.69 million (K8.23m) in fiscal 2012 when Newcrest made a A$1.12 billion (K2.49b) profit.
Newcrest, Australia’s largest gold miner, posted a A$2.2 billion (K4.90b) annual loss for 2013/14 to follow the previous year’s A$5.8 billion (K12.93) loss amid heavy asset impairments at its Lihir mine in PNG and a falling gold price.
New chief executive Sandeep Biswas replaced Robinson on July 4, and has become one of Australia’s best paid bosses with a A$2.3 million (K5.13) base salary for 2014/15. – AAP