Oil giant BP to pay miners £6m

OIL and gas giant BP said it had cleared the way to selling its last coal asset by paying workers at a vast Indonesian mine $6m (£3.8m).

Kaltim Prima Coal, which is half-owned by BP and Rio Tinto, is to be sold to an Indonesian group for $500m in cash and assumed debt.

But workers at the facility walked off the job last month, demanding a share of the sale proceeds.

A spokesman for BP in Jakarta said that union leaders had agreed to the $6m pay-off, which amounts to two million rupiah (£148) per worker for each year of service.