Freeport Commenced Construction of Cutting-Edge Copper Smelter in Indonesia

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Arizona-based U.S. mining giant Freeport McMoRan broke ground on its new copper smelter facility adjacent to its existing copper refining operations in Indonesia. It is expected to be one of the world’s biggest copper smelters, upon completion.

The new facility, located at Gresik in East Java, is being built at an investment of around $3 billion. The processing capacity of the plant is estimated at around 1.7 million tonnes of copper concentrate per annum. It is expected to start operations in late-2023 or latest by early-2024.

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The new smelter will be capable to produce around 600,000 tonnes of copper cathode per year. It also includes a $200 million precious metals refinery with an output capacity of up to 54 tonnes.

The setting up of the copper smelter facility in the country would help Indonesia to become an exporter of value-added copper. It must be noted that the country has been exporting mostly copper concentrates for the past several decades. Moreover, the project will bring huge economic benefits to the Gresik region.

The earlier plans by the company to build a similar plant, in partnership Chinese Tsingshan Holding Group, had failed, with both the parties failing to reach an agreement even after several months of deliberations.