Commission VII DPR RI Appreciate Freeport Indonesia Smelter's Achievement
17 July 2024
Gresik, East Java, July 17, 2024 - Deputy Chairman of Commission VII of the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI), Eddy Soeparno, appreciated PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) achievements on its smelter located in the Gresik Special Economic Zone (KEK) for its successful development and transition into the current operational phase.
"We highly appreciate PTFI for reaching the operational phase as scheduled in mutual agreement with the government. We hope the process runs smoothly until the production phase in August and full-scale production by December 2024," said Eddy during a visit to PTFI Smelter on Wednesday.
Eddy emphasized the importance of Freeport Smelter in supporting domestic mineral mining down streaming effort. He hopes that PTFI Smelter will provide optimal benefits to the nation.
"We hope the production will be ramping up and PTFI's output can be absorbed domestically. With the presence of PTFI Smelter, there is an increased pressure for the government to create downstream industries, ensuring the added value of PTFI's output is not only exported but also processed domestically," he added.
Eddy called on the Ministry of Industry to issue policies that can accelerate the growth of domestic industries, particularly those utilizing processed products from PTFI smelter.
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PTFI President Director Tony Wenas, in his presentation, revealed that from August 2024 to December 2024, approximately 400,000 tons of concentrate will be refined at PTFI smelter.
"We plan to start production in August and ramp up to 100% by December 2024. Once it’s fully operational, the input capacity of PTFI and PT Smelting smelters will be able to refine all of PTFI's copper concentrate domestically, which amounts to about 3 million tons per year," Tony explained.
Tony further noted that once production begins, all copper concentrate from PTFI's mining operations in Papua will be completely refined domestically. "Our collective goal is to ensure that the copper cathode produced by PTFI Smelter is consumed domestically. This will drive the emergence of more downstream industries to utilize the copper cathode produced by the PTFI smelter," he said.
The main final products of PTFI Smelter are copper cathodes, gold, and silver bars. While by-products include sulfuric acid, slag, PGM, and selenium.
During the visit, Commission VII DPR RI inspected various areas of PTFI Smelter, including the refinery, smelter operation area, sulfuric acid facilities, control room, and anode casting section.
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