Freeport plans to restore large-scale production from PT Freeport Indonesia’s Grasberg operations in Central Papua, Indonesia, following a fatal mud-flow disaster in early September. Remediation activities are advancing to prepare for a phased restart and ramp-up of the Grasberg Block Cave underground mine beginning in the second quarter of 2026.
On September 8, seven workers were killed when around 800,000 metric tons of wet material flooded the mine.
“Our team is committed to restoring large-scale, low-cost production at Grasberg in a safe, efficient and responsible manner,” Kathleen Quirk, president and CEO, said. “We have incorporated the learnings from the recent tragic incident into our future plans and are implementing several initiatives to address the conditions that led to the incident. We will continue to prioritize safety above all else as we restore operations and work to provide benefits to our many stakeholders.”
Under the phased restart and ramp-up plans, Freeport expects production of copper and gold from the Grasberg minerals district in 2026 to be similar to the estimated 2025 volumes, approximating 1.0 billion pounds of copper and 0.9 million ounces of gold.
The miner expects production to increase throughout 2026 and 2027, with average annual production of approximately 1.6 billion pounds of copper and 1.3 million ounces of gold for the 2027-2029 period.
Source: Freeport-McMoRan