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Copper miner Freeport Indonesia will process about 400,000 metric tons of copper concentrate at its newly-launched $3.7 billion smelter from August to December, its chief said in a statement.
As the race to transition to renewable energy spurred growing demand for the metal, Freeport Indonesia last month launched the smelter in Gresik, East Java with a capacity of 1.7 million metric tons of copper concentrate, output capacity around 650,000 tons of copper cathode and 50 to 60 tons of gold.
Tony Wenas, Freeport Indonesia’s chief executive, said the smelter’s processing capacity will increase gradually in August and will reach its full capacity in December.
“After this smelter operates at full capacity, Freeport Indonesia’s smelter and PT Smelting will be able to process all Freeport Indonesia’s copper concentrate of 3 million tons per year domestically,” said Tony in a statement late on Wednesday, referring to PT Smelting, the joint venture between Mitsubishi Materials Corp and Freeport Indonesia, with a capacity of 1.3 million tons of copper concentrate.
Freeport Indonesia previously forecast 3.78 million tons of copper concentrate output this year.
Earlier this month, Freeport Indonesia obtained an export permit for the rest of the year from the government, its spokesperson said, as there is excess copper concentrate available for export while the new smelter is ramping up.
Freeport Indonesia is majority owned by the Indonesian government but operated by US mining giant Freeport McMoran.
Indonesia banned exports of all raw minerals from June 2023, but gave Freeport Indonesia and rival miner Amman Mineral Internasional dispensation until May 31, 2024, to allow them to finish the construction of their smelters.
(By Stanley Widianto and Bernadette Christina; Editing by Michael Perry)
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