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View all search resultsFreeport halts Gresik smelter in Grasberg mudslide aftermath
The mining giant has confirmed that smelting activity at its Gresik facility has been suspended for over a month after the copper concentrate supply was disrupted due to the operational shutdown at its Grasberg mine following the mudslide incident in September, which killed seven workers.
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Workers walk past massive steel structures on Jan. 13, 2023, as construction is underway at the site of PT Freeport Indonesia’s smelter facility in Gresik, East Java. (JP/M. Taufiqurrahman)
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T Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) has halted its smelting operation for more than a month after a fatal mudslide in September disrupted its copper concentrate supply, its president director Tony Wenas has confirmed.
The smelter’s “operation can be said to have stopped because there’s no concentrate”, Tony said on Saturday, as quoted by state news agency Antara.
Following the incident on Sept. 8 in the Grasberg Block Cave (GBC), one of three mines at its Grasberg mine in Mimika, Central Papua, its main source of gold and copper and among the world’s largest mining sites for the minerals, the mining giant has entirely suspended on-site activities.
The company initially shut down operations to focus its resources on the search for the seven workers who became trapped when around 800,000 tonnes of wet material flooded one of five sections in the GBC. All seven workers were confirmed dead after a rescue effort lasting 27 days, with the first two bodies recovered on Sept. 20 and the remaining five on Oct. 6.
Read also: Freeport confirms all seven missing workers dead after Indonesia mine disaster
The mine remained in shutdown even after the search and rescue efforts concluded, Tony said, as PTFI and the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry were conducting an incident investigation as well as evaluating safety at the site.
“We have entirely stopped production since Sept. 8. All of our [mining [operations] are halted,” he said. “We are now focusing on restoration, investigation and evaluation.”
