The SOE Holding Mining Industry MIND ID or Mining Industry Indonesia continues to accelerate the downstream of the mining sector. One of them is through the construction of smelters or smelting plants carried out by members.

Smelters are vital in the mining sector's downstream process. Through the construction of smelters, the value added to the mineral mining industry sector will continue to increase and provide many benefits.

One of the smelter developments to be completed shortly is a copper ore smelter in the Java Integrated Industrial and Port Estate (JIIPE) area, Manyar, Gresik, East Java. The smelter is run by PT Smelting, a MIND ID Group member, a subsidiary of PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI).

MIND ID Corporate Secretary Heri Yusuf said that the construction of the copper ore smelter has reached 90.6 percent and is planned to start operating by the end of May 2024.

"[The smelter] means copper production can start in August 2024, as we need to prepare everything for operation for about 6 to 10 weeks, after which we can start to concentrate feeding," said Heri.

Heri said PT Smelter will ensure the copper smelting plant is feasible in terms of infrastructure and the readiness of production equipment to avoid problems in the future, such as leaks and others.

IDR 465 Trillion Worth

The smelter project, worth IDR 465 trillion, has a production capacity of 1.7 million tons of copper anodes or cathodes per year. According to Heri, based on this calculation, PT Smelting can produce up to 3 million tons per year.

"Of course, this provides additional value for Indonesia. There will be many copper derivative industries in the country thanks to the Manyar smelter, for example, copper foil and other copper derivative industries," he said.

Downstreaming of natural resources is one of the main strategies for encouraging economic growth in the country. With downstream, Heri continued, it will contribute to job opportunities and create added value to the domestic economy.

"Downstreaming is one of the mandates given by the government to MIND ID, so we must carry it out in the mineral industry sector to provide more value for Indonesia," he said.

Image source: Liputan6 / Dok. MIND ID

Source: https://www.liputan6.com/bisnis/read/5519920/pembangunan-smelter-freeport-gresik-capai-906-mei-2024-siap-operasi