Deputy Chairman of Commission VII of the House of Representatives, Eddy Soeparno, expressed his appreciation for the achievements of the PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) Smelter in the Gresik Special Economic Zone (SEZ) whose construction has run smoothly until now entering the operating period. 

“We give our greatest appreciation to PTFI for reaching the operating stage in accordance with the schedule agreed upon with the government. We hope that this process will run smoothly until the production process in August and full production in December 2024,” said Deputy Chairman of Commission VII DPR RI Eddy Soeparno during a visit to the Freeport Smelter, Wednesday (17/7/2024).

Eddy said the Freeport smelter is important in supporting Indonesia's mineral downstreaming program. He hopes the smelter can provide optimal benefits for the nation and state.

“We hope that this production will develop further, so that the output produced by PTFI can be absorbed domestically. After the PTFI Smelter is established, there is even greater pressure for the government to bring in derivative industries so that the added value of the PTFI Smelter output is not only exported but can be managed domestically,” he said. 

Eddy hopes that the government, in this case the Ministry of Industry, will issue policies that can accelerate the growth of domestic industries, including the utilization of products from the PTFI smelter that can be used domestically.

PTFI President Director Tony Wenas said in his presentation that from August 2024 to December 2024, around 400 thousand tons of concentrate will be refined at the PTFI Smelter.

“We plan to start production in August and will ramp up 100% in December 2024. Once fully operational, the input capacity of the PTFI Smelter and PT Smelting will be able to refine all of PTFI's copper concentrate in the country, which reaches around 3 million tons per year,” Tony said. 

When in production, Tony continued, the copper concentrate from PTFI's mining operations in Papua will be refined entirely domestically. “Our common task is that the copper cathode produced by the PTFI smelter can be consumed domestically.

There are more downstream industries that will emerge to utilize the copper cathode
produced by the PTFI smelter,” Tony said. The main end products of the PTFI smelter are copper cathode, gold and silver bars.

While the by-products are sulfuric acid, slag, PGM, and selenium.
During the visit, Commission VII DPR RI directly reviewed various areas in the smelter such as the refinery, smelter operation area, sulfuric acid facility, control room and anode casting.(hsb)