Freeport Boss Meets Erick Thohir, Here's What He Discussed

JAKARTA - Through his Instagram page, Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir revealed that he had just met with the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Freeport-McMoRAN Richard C Adkerson and Freeport-McMortan President

Erick said that what was discussed at the meeting was related to downstreaming and completion of the construction of the purification industry or smelter owned by PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) in Manyar, Gresik, East Java.

He said that the addition of the first phase of the smelter capacity will be opened on Thursday this week.

"For phase one, today we will review 1-2 for later in stage two, God willing, May it can be completed but it will start operating normally if the factory needs 2-3 months," Erick told the media, Wednesday, December 13.

For the first stage, the smelter will be increased in capacity from 300,000 tons to 1.3 million tons per year. Meanwhile, for the second stage, new single line smelters will be built with a capacity of 1.7 million tons per year and will be confirmed to be completed in May 2024.

Regarding the discussion on contract extensions, Erick said that this had been discussed previously with the condition that the smelter had been completed. The additional requirement is to release 10 percent of shares by PTFI to Indonesia through the Indonesian mining holding company, MIND ID.

"It has been discussed, it has been approved, it's just a matter of completing the smelter, it's really finished, it's just been extended, because it has to be like that," concluded Erick.