Strike shuts down Canadian owned gold mine in Suriname

Suriname's only gold mine, the Rosebel Gold Mine which is majority owned by Canada's IAMGOLD, has been shut down by a strike by workers protesting new longer shift hours, labor leader Freddy Brug said Tuesday.The strike by the union representing 1,100 miners began Monday after the company moved to impose a new 16-hour shift once during the two-week schedule.The miners had worked a 14-day schedule with 12 working hours a day. The new schedule is 13 days of 12-hour shifts and one day of 16 hours.Rosebel is 95 percent owned by Canada's IAMGOLD with five percent held by the government of Suriname. It produced 395,000 ounces in 2010 at cash cost of $484 per ounce and their mine life is estimated to 2022.Rosebel is located some 118 kilometers (75 miles) south of the capital Paramaribo.The strike comes with world gold prices hovering near record levels above $1,600 per ounce.