text: Newmont Strikes Gold, Profit and Costs Up  NEW YORK (Reuters) - The world's largest gold producer,  Newmont Mining Corp. &lt;A HREF="http://www.investor.reuters.com/FullQuote.aspx?ticker=NEM.N target=/stocks/quickinfo/fullquote"&gt;NEM.N&lt;/A&gt;, on Wednesday said higher gold  prices drove up quarterly profit by 12.5 percent, even though  it sold less of the precious metal.