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Freeport seeks to expand old smelter as energy ministry stands ground for new one
Gold and copper mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) plans to expand its existing copper smelter as the company tries to distance itself from a new smelter project that is still encouraged by the authority.
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The site for PT Freeport Indonesia's US$3 billion smelter in the JIIPE industrial area in Gresik, East Java, is pictured on Sept 3, 2020. The area is being developed by PT Pelabuhan Indonesia III (Pelindo III) and PT AKR Corporindo. (Courtesy of PT AKR Corporindo/-)
Gold and copper mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) plans to expand its existing copper smelter as the company tries to distance itself from a new smelter project that is still encouraged by the authority.
Freeport Indonesia signed on Nov. 13 a deal with Japanese metal manufacturer Mitsubishi Materials Corporation to expand their joint venture PT Smelting Gresik, which runs a copper smelter in Gresik, East Java.
The two companies plan to raise the smelter’s annual production capacity from 1 million tons to 1.3 million tons with the expansion set to be completed in 2023.
Freeport Indonesia spokesman Riza Pratama told The Jakarta Post on Monday that the expansion was meant to fulfill the company’s legal obligation to refine metal ores domestically.
“This is an option other than building a new smelter. PTFI’s commitment remains,” he said.
PTFI and its shareholder, publicly-listed American mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Inc, have been trying to distance themselves from a promised $3 billion copper smelter project, slated for completion in 2023, that executives have decried as unlikely to be completed on time and as unprofitable.
