OREANDA-NEWS. July 29, 2013. Russia’s second largest gold producer Petropavlovsk Plc plans to lay off 720 employees, or about 8% of the staff under a cost and debt reduction program, the company said.

The major reductions will take place at Amur Region subsidiaries where 350 employees at the Pokrov and Pionner mine as well as 150 and 130 employees at the Malomir and Albyn mines will be made redundant. In Moscow and Blagoveshchensk, 90 jobs will be cut.

Cost cutting programs are targeting a 9-12% reduction in operating expenses at all mines in July–December.

Given the current gold price and exchange rates, Petropavlovsk expects its net debt to fall to less than U.S. USD 1 billion by year-end from USD1.15 billion in late June.