Freeport Indonesia expects to see production at the Manyar smelter ramp up in Q3 of next year
An official revealed on Wednesday that Freeport Indonesia, a copper miner in Indonesia, expects its $3.7 billion Manyar Smelter in East Java will ramp up operations in the third quarter next year following a fire that halted it in October.
Katri Krisnati, its spokesperson, said that based on the plan of repair for the affected facilities it was estimated that ramp-up operations at (Freeport)'s smelter could begin in the thirdquarter of 2025.
Hendi Pro Santoso, the chief executive of MIND ID, Freeport Indonesia's parent company, told a Wednesday parliamentary hearing that it hoped to have the smelter operating normally in six months.
MIND ID owns 51.2% of Freeport Indonesia.
Freeport's operational issues at the smelter led it to request that the Indonesian government extend its export license for copper concentrate, which expires this year.
We have to fix it first because of a fire that occurred at our smelter. We need flexibility in order to export by 2025, until the smelter has been reopened," Freeport Indonesia CEO Tony Wenas said to reporters.
He also said that the company would be requesting an additional export quota this year.
The government has not yet decided whether or not to approve this request, said Bahlil Lahadalia, the mining minister at a Wednesday industry summit.
Freeport Indonesia had to stop the production of copper cathodes at its newly-operated smelter when a fire broke out at its gas cleaning system.
According to sources with knowledge of the situation, U.S. mining giant Freeport McMoRan - which operates Freeport Indonesia’s mine and smelter - will delay the sale of refined copper produced in Indonesia until the second half of 2025.
The copper smelter in Manyar was finished in June, and production began in September. A steam and water leak caused a delay in production.
The Manyar smelter's production delays, which have a capacity to produce 480,000 tons of cathode copper a year, are already reducing the expected surplus of metal in 2025 and supporting the prices. (Reporting and editing by Martin Petty; Fransiska Naangoy and Bernadette Cristina)
(source: Reuters)
