Freeport Indonesia has completed the construction work on its new copper smelting plant – the world’s largest single-line smelter, it said – and has commenced commissioning of the Gresik, East Java facility.
The Smelter Manyar project, with a price tag of about $3.7 billion (Rp 60 trillion), is targeting copper cathose production in the coming months as it ramps up to full production by the end of this year.
While the completion of the work wrapped in late June, the miner said July 2 that PTFI received its approval notification for exportation of the concentrates and anode slimes from the Indonesian government. It will continue to pay export duties on those during the ramp-up in line with the country’s regulations, and to comply with the May 31 expiration of its prior export license.
“FCX is reviewing its sales guidance in connection with its routine quarterly forecast updates and does not currently expect a material change to its annual 2024 copper volume guidance,” the company said.
“As a result of a change in mine sequencing principally to address wet conditions in certain of the Grasberg Block Cave draw points, 2024 gold sales are expected to approximate 1.8 million ounces compared with previous estimates approaching 2.0 million ounces. This change is a timing issue and not expected to affect long-range plans.”
Smelter Manyar is located at the Java Integrated Industrial and Ports Estate (JIIPE) and, as Freeport Indonesia president director Tony Wenas said in remarks on the company’s YouTube channel on June 27, the smelter will have an input capacity of 1.7 million tons of copper concentrate and a production output of approximately 650,000 tons of copper cathode annually.
Furthermore, by December, the smelter will be able to refine anode sludge to produce gold, silver, and other metals at a rate of 50-60 tons and 220 tons annually, respectively.
“Hopefully, by mid-August, production can commence, possibly in conjunction with the celebration of Indonesia’s Independence Day on August 17,” he added.
Sources: fcx.com and Freeport Launches World’s Largest Single-Line Copper Smelter in Indonesia (jakartaglobe.id)