Freeport Increases Gold and Copper Production in 2023

PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) will increase the production target for gold and copper commodities in 2023. This target will increase to 1.8 million ounces of gold, and 1.7 billion pounds of copper.

Reported by databoks.katadata.co.id, The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) explained that PTFI produced 1.37 million ounces of gold, and 1.33 billion pounds of copper in 2021. Meanwhile in 2022, the production target increases to 1.59 million ounces of gold and 1.6 billion pounds of copper.

“PTFI is optimistic that the demand for copper will be positive due to the increased need for copper. This has been followed by the bustling projects of renewable energy power plants,” said the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in the Daily Energy and Mineral Strategic Information Review (12/12/2022).

Therefore, PTFI has an agenda to oversee PTFI’s second copper concentrate refining and processing facility project. This project is located at the Java Integrated and Industrial Port Estate (JIIPE), Smelter Manyar, Gresik, East Java. Currently, the progress of the Manyar Smelter has reached 45 percent. The ministry hopes that the smelter progress will increase to 50 percent by the end of the year.

In addition, ESDM has planned to combine the processing output of the Manyar Smelter with the capacities of other copper smelters. One of them is PT Smelting which has been operating. Currently PT Smelting has a processing capacity of 1 million tons of copper concentrate per year. In the future, after the Manyar Smelter operates, PTFI is projected to be able to process 3 million tons of copper concentrate per year.

Until 2021 there were only 2 copper smelters in Indonesia. The government plans to continue to increase the number of smelters in the future. So it can strengthen the downstream mining industry.