Freeport Indonesia Prepared Large Investment for Upcoming Period

PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) has prepared a large investment for developments and mining operations in the upcoming period. Chairman of the Board and CEO of Freeport McMoRan Richard C. Adkerson said that PTFI would invest up to US$ 18.6 billion for the period 2021 – 2041. He saw this additional investment from the prospect of the copper and gold market, which he considered to be improving in the future.

“We almost invested US$ 20 billion in developing this operation in Papua, in the mountains, where the person who discovered it said this mine would not be developed,” said Adkerson when giving a speech at Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) (4/10/2022).

Reported from bisnis.tempo.co, the total investment over the next 20 years will be aimed at developing future business operations with a value of US$ 15.6 billion. Richard Adkerson also added that he would invest more than US$ 3 billion to build a new smelter in Surabaya, Central Java.

The smelter will be Freeport’s second smelter, after the first one was built since 1996 with Mitsubishi through a joint company called PT Smelting. Currently, PT Smelting’s capacity is being expanded with an additional capacity of 300 thousand per day metric ton or DMT of copper concentrate per year. The smelter construction is targeted for completion in 2024.

“This is a world class smelter, the new smelter will be 6 times than the previous production capacity of PT Smelting. Our mining operations are the lowest in terms of cost in the world,” he explained.

Since the Grasberg open pit was mined in 2020, Richard Adkerson said that Freeport still has several other reserves. Starting from the Deep Ore Zone Block Cave until 2022, Big Gossan Stope until 2038, Deep Mill Level Zone Block Cave until 2040, Grasberg Block Cave until 2044, and Wild Cat Block Cave until 2052.