Freeport strike causes $6.7m in daily losses

The planned month-long strike launched on Thursday by thousands of workers of PT Freeport Indonesia, the Indonesian unit of US mining giant Freeport-McMoRan, may cost the state US$6.7 million in losses per day, a minister says.

“The potential losses in state revenue is $6.7 million, while in terms of gold and copper ore production, it is 230,000 tons [per day],” Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Darwin Zahedy Saleh said in Jakarta on Friday.

He added that Freeport itself could potentially suffer $19 million in losses per day, as it ceased productions.

“That $19 million figure comes from Freeport's potential losses from trade,” Darwin said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Up to 8,000 Freeport workers launched the strike on Thursday, stopping work and leaving the mining site in Grasberg, Papua.

The strike has been planned for a month, as negotiations between the workers’ union and the Freeport management regarding the workers' demand for a pay rise deadlocked.

However, Darwin said he was optimistic that the government could help settle the dispute through the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry's mediation.