Jakarta, IndonesiaSentinel.com — Tony Wenas, President Director of PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), has announced that the company’s copper concentrate processing facility, or smelter, in Gresik is ready to commence production. He estimates that the smelter could be officially inaugurated by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) next week.
“The Gresik copper smelter is operational and ready for production. We hope it can be inaugurated by President Jokowi next week,” Wenas said during an interview at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) office in Jakarta on Thursday, August 22, 2024.
When asked about the certainty of the inauguration date, Wenas expressed hope that it would align with the President’s schedule. “It depends on his schedule. We hope it fits,” he added.
The single-line copper concentrate smelter owned by Freeport Indonesia, located in Gresik, East Java, was initially commissioned on June 27, 2024. This commissioning phase included testing, trials, and other preliminary procedures to ensure that equipment and systems were installed and operated correctly over a period of approximately 6-10 weeks.
Claimed to be the largest single-line smelter design in the world, PTFI’s facility is set to process 1.7 million tons of copper concentrate annually, along with producing other materials such as pure gold and silver bars, platinum group metals, sulfuric acid, slag, gypsum, and lead.
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The copper produced at this smelter will play a key role in the electric vehicle ecosystem, alongside other critical materials such as nickel, aluminum, cobalt, and lithium.
With the smelter now operational, production is set to commence in August, with a target full capacity of 600,000 tons per year expected to be reached by the end of December 2024.
(Agung)
