Newcrest mining plunges $5.8 billion into red after deep writedowns on gold price slide THE country's largest gold miner has reported a record annual loss, dragged down by a plunge in the gold price, lower production and massive writedowns. Newcrest, which owns mines in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Ivory Coast, posted a net loss of $5.78 billion for the year to June compared with a profit of $1.12 billion a year earlier. The 2013 financial year result included $6.23 billion in asset impairments and writedowns. The embattled miner reported an underlying profit - a measure which strips out one off items - of $451 million, less than half of the $1.08 billion figure posted last year. The company, which is also under pressure of allegedly tipping off analysts in the lead up to today's results, blamed the heavy falls in the gold price in 2013 and subsequent falls in valuations for the asset writedowns. Newcrest will not pay a dividend.