Tony said, the progress of smelter construction in Gresik in 2022 is targeted to reach 50% or with costs to be incurred of US $ 1.5 billion or around Rp. 22.3 trillion (assuming an exchange rate of Rp. 14,900).

The smelter project, which processes 1.7 million tons of copper concentrate, is targeted to be completed in December 2023, then continued with trials or commissioning, so that it is targeted to start producing gold in May 2024.

"For the product, the offtaker (buyer) for gold is planned for Antam to buy. So, our gold which will be produced 30-50 tons per year will be offtake by Antam and sulfuric acid will be offtake by Petrochemical Gresik and Pupuk Indonesia. Meanwhile, the copper slag will be taken by Semen Gresik and Semen Indonesia," he explained in a Hearing Meeting (RDP) with Commission VI of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia, Monday (12/09/2022).

Tony explained, if this new smelter operates, it means that Indonesia will have additional copper cathode production to 500-600 thousand tons per year from the current 300 thousand tons of copper cathode per year.

Nevertheless, from the current production of copper cathodes alone, about 50% or about 150 thousand tons are still exported because they are not absorbed by domestic industries.

Therefore, he requested that the copper cathode absorbing industry in the country be built and developed, so that the copper cathode production from their smelter could be absorbed by the domestic industry.

"If the downstream industry does not grow, this will be 100% exported as well. So, this is an opportunity that unfortunately that this should then attract even more downstream investors, for example electric car cable factories and renewable energy," he said.

Tony said, until the end of July 2022, the physical construction of the Gresik smelter has reached 36.2% and has absorbed US$ 1.2 billion from the total investment until the end of US$ 3 billion or around Rp. 45 trillion.

In this year the number of construction workers has reached 5, 000 people and by 2023 it is expected to increase again to 10 thousand people. As for the peak construction, it is estimated that it requires up to 15 thousand workers, of which almost 100% are Indonesian Workers (TKI) and 50% of them are local workers from East Java.

As is known, on October 12, 2021 President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) inaugurated the initial process of building Freeport's new smelter (groundbreaking) plant in the Gresik Special Economic Zone (SEZ), East Java.

The president also expressed his pride. The reason is, if this smelter has been built, then this will become the largest single line smelter in the world.

"We have received reports that the smelter to be built is with a single line design, the largest in the world," said Jokowi, on Tuesday (12/10/2021).

Source: https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/news/20220912131335-4-371303/antam-bakal-angkut-50-ton-emas-freeport/amp