President Director of PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) Tony Wenas announced that the company is prepared to commence gold bar production in the second week of December 2024. This inaugural production will be facilitated by the Precious Metal Refinery (PMR) facility located in Gresik, East Java.
“In compliance with its Special Mining Business License and as part of the government's downstreaming program, PTFI has completed the smelter and PMR and is ready to produce gold bars, which will start in the second week of December,” Tony said during a press conference at a hotel in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Thursday, November 7, 2024.
The initial production is projected to yield between 50 and 60 tons of gold bars annually. The production process will utilize anode mud sourced from PT Smelting. “The estimated annual production capacity of the PMR is between 50 and 60 tons, depending on the ore grade,” he explained.
In addition to gold, PTFI's PMR could also refine silver and produce platinum group metals, specifically platinum and palladium, from the processing of anode mud. The annual production targets for these metals are 200 tons for silver, 30 kilograms for platinum, and 375 kilograms for palladium.
According to him, the PMR has an annual anode mud input capacity of 3,000 tons. “All 3,000 tons of annual anode mud will be refined at the PMR,” Tony added.
For the inaugural production in December, PTFI aims to produce 500 kilograms of gold bars. The company plans to gradually increase production until the PMR can fully support the Indonesian government's initiative to bolster domestic gold bar reserves.
Subsequently, PTFI will supply up to 30 tons of gold annually to PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam), as stipulated in a gold metal sales agreement signed between the two companies on Thursday, November 7, 2024. The signing of the five-year futures agreement was also attended by State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir and Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Dadan Kusdiana.
