Indonesia to become world's fourth-largest copper producer next year

Indonesia is set to become the world's fourth-largest producer of copper cathode by 2025, following the full commissioning in July 2024 of the new PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) smelter in Gresik.The head of the Investment Minister/Investment Coordination Board (BKPM) said the copper plant will produce 60 tons of pure gold and 400,000 tons of copper cathode. Apart from that, the smelter, with an investment value of US$3 billion, or about 49.2 trillion dong, will start operating on July 1, 2024. Starting from July 1, the Freeport plant will process copper concentrates from Gracie Ketimica, and within a year, the plant will produce 60 tons of pure gold, 400,000 tons of copper cathode, and various other derivatives. On the other hand, PTFI has also been asked to build a smelter in Papua Timika, close to the Tembaga pura Freeport mine. The requirement to build the smelter is in line with the government's plan to increase the number of PTFI shares from the current 51% to 61% by 2041.

The government is considering acquiring another stake in 10% once regulations are in place. Now that the government owns a stake in 51%, they would like Indonesia to have a majority stake again, negotiations have been completed and Freeport has agreed to acquire a further stake in 10%.The PTFI smelter, a copper concentrate refinery located in the JIIPE Special Economic Zone (KEK) in Manyar, Gresik, East Java, commenced construction in October 2021, and has been completed in accordance with the government's schedule. PTFI's second smelter is the world's largest copper smelter by single-line design and will have a capacity of 1.7 million tons of refined copper concentrate when fully operational. The smelter is equipped with a refining unit, a precious metal purification unit, an oxygen generation unit, a sulfuric acid unit and a desalination unit, as well as effluent and wastewater treatment units to support the maximization of raw materials, by-products and wastes to achieve a highly efficient smelting and refining process.