Newmont Mining Corporation announced that it plans to reduce its workforce in Colorado by at least 33 percent over the next 90 days.

The reduction reflects the company’s work to streamline its operating model and sharpen its ability to create value for shareholders and other stakeholders. In addition to delivering cost and efficiency improvements, the new model will shift greater accountability for production and profitability to its operational teams, and focus its corporate team on strategy and governance, the company said in a statement on its website, posted June 12.

“Ongoing price volatility and steadily rising costs create intense pressure for Newmont to continuously improve its efficiency and effectiveness. We face some very difficult decisions in streamlining our organization and are committed to treating people fairly throughout this process. Ultimately, we cannot postpone the work we need to accomplish now to create sustainable value for our stakeholders into the future,” said Gary Goldberg, president and chief executive officer.

Newmont currently employs approximately 750 people locally, the vast majority at its headquarters in Greenwood Village, CO. The company directly employs 16,000 people globally, and contractors bring that total to 40,000.

The exact number of cuts in Colorado and at other sites is still undetermined, Newmont spokesman Omar Jabara told the Denver Post. The workforce remaining in Colorado will be focused on strategy and governance.

After peaking above $1,900 an ounce in mid-2011, gold is now trading under $1,400 an ounce, with a large drop in early April after reports that China's economy was slowing. That decline has put intense pressure on gold-mining companies and gold-related investments across the board.

Newmont's stock price has fallen from nearly $58 a share in October to $33.33 a share at the close of trading on June 12, knocking the company off its long-held perch as Colorado’s largest public company in market value.

Newmont, founded in 1921, has assets in the U.S., Australia, Peru, Indonesia, Ghana, Mexico and New Zealand. It has faced protests over the year at some of its locations, especially in Peru.

Newmont had land holdings of 29,000 square miles and 99.2 million ounces of proven and probable gold reserves at the end of last year, making it the largest U.S.-based gold-mining firm.