NEWMONT MINING and Barrick Gold will start a review of the future of the Kalgoorlie Super Pit, after rising costs forced Newmont to report an accounting loss from the operation in the June quarter.

Newmont's head of Asia-Pacific operations, Brian Hill, said all options would be considered for the goldmine - one of the largest in Australia - including a sale or closure.

"We are looking at all of those options right now," he said at the Diggers and Dealers conference in Kalgoorlie. "We've got a number of options that we are looking at in terms of the life of mine. That is sort of being looked at together with ourselves, with Barrick and with the [joint venture's] management."

The Super Pit - the highest-cost operation in the world for each of the North American gold giants - employs 1000 workers and contractors in Kalgoorlie.

In February, Newmont's chief executive, Richard O'Brien, announced the company would conduct a portfolio review this year and did not rule out the sale of high-cost operations in Australia.

"We still haven't undertaken that review yet," Mr Hill said. "We still will do that, as we said we would, just as part of our good corporate governance in terms of looking at all our assets around the world. But we'll be having a good look at all of our options with respect to it over the second half of this year."

Barrick's president of Australia Pacific operations, Joc O'Rourke, was reluctant to discuss the future of the mine.

"It is an important piece of our portfolio, but it has relatively low margins," he said.

Barrick uses different accounting standards from Newmont and does not break out the individual costs for the mine.

Mr Hill said the grades had proven lower than expected in the first half of the year following a pit wall failure in January, but the grades should improve in the present half.

The Super Pit is capable of producing up to 850,000 ounces a year.