Hundreds of workers at Freeport-McMoRan's Indonesian mine returned to work on Friday after a three-day strike over pay, the US firm said, ending the latest bout of industrial action to hit the operation.

Some 1,100 workers, employed by three contractors and not directly by Freeport, downed tools on Tuesday at the Grasberg mine in easternmost Papua province, one of the world's largest gold and copper mines.

But the workers from the contractors Jasti Pravita, Osato Seike and Srikandi Mitra Karya, most of whom are working on an expansion of the mine, returned to work on Friday after reaching a deal on salaries, a spokeswoman for Freeport's Indonesian unit said.

"Three contractors... have reached an agreement over the pay matters of their workers," spokeswoman Daisy Primayanti told AFP.

"We are pleased that their workers are returning to work." She did not disclose details of the pay deal.

A three-month strike over wages by thousands of those directly employed by Freeport crippled production at the mine in 2011 and only ended once the firm agreed to a huge pay hike.

However, the latest strike caused only minimal disruption to the mine's overall operations and production, as those who walked out were a small number of the more than 24,000 people who work at Grasberg, said Primayanti.

Industrial action is on the rise in Southeast Asia's biggest economy, with foreign companies in particular targeted, as the cost of living increases and workers demand a greater share of the nation's economic success.