Striking workers at Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc's giant Indonesian mine delayed on Saturday until next week a plan to go back to work after a three-month strike because of technical issues.

The union representing miners at the Freeport's Grasberg mine struck a pay rise deal on Wednesday and agreed to end the strike which has crippled production in the world's second biggest copper mine. It agreed to start mobilizing workers to work on Saturday.

However, the union said it had yet to start transferring about 9,000 workers who had joined the strike back to the highland mine because it needed to work with management on technical issues such as which division should be taken up to the mine first, a schedule of shifts and accommodation.

Union spokesman Juli Parorrongan told Reuters that "Mobilizing thousands of workers is not a simple matter because there are so many things that need to be put in mind to avoid any disagreements among the workers and with the management.” He added that the workers would return to work next week.

Freeport had said it was losing 2 million lb of copper and 3,000 ounces of gold in lost daily production.

(Sourced from Reuters)