Freeport Smelter in Gresik Officially Operates

Gresik – Smelter of Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) in Gresik, East Java, was inaugurated by representatives of Indonesian government officials on Thursday (June 27).

PTFI President Director Tony Wenas said that realizing the world's largest single-line copper smelter had many challenges.

"We can inaugurate the operation of the PTFI smelter which was quite challenging to complete," Wenas said in a statement via his YouTube account on Thursday.

With a production capacity of up to 1.7 million tons of copper concentrate, he confirmed the output of the smelter could produce around 600-700 thousand tons of copper cathode that could be refined at the smelter around December.

"The anode slurry will produce gold and silver, as well as several other metals. The amount of gold is approximately between 50-60 tons and silver around 220 tons per year," Wenas said.

With a total investment of US$3.7 billion or around IDR 58 trillion, Wenas estimated that copper cathode production will begin around August 2024. This is so that the heating process can reach a certain heat point on the furnish.

"After that, the concentrate will be put in, then processed in the furnish, and cooked in the form of the anode casing that we saw earlier. The copper anode is then brought to the Electro Refinery," he said.

Furthermore, Wenas said that the Electro Refinery process is expected to take about three weeks.

So it is estimated that Freeport will only boost its first copper cathode production around mid-August 2024.

"Hopefully, it can be done before or during the commemoration of the Indonesian Independence Day on August 17," he concluded.