Indonesia hikes Freeport’s copper concentrate export recommendation to 700,000 tonnes

Indonesia’s energy ministry has approved a new recommendation for a unit of Freeport McMoran Inc to raise copper concentrate exports to 700,000 tonnes until March 2020, an official told reporters on Friday.

The new recommendation is much higher than the initial approval for shipments of 198,282 tonnes of copper concentrates, said Yunus Saefulhak, the ministry’s director of minerals.

Freeport’s Grasberg mine is expected to produce 1.2 million tonnes of copper concentrates this year, he said.

Saefulhak said Freeport could export more “due to optimisation of its open pit mine.”

(By Wilda Asmarini and Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Himani Sarkar)