Ministry Of Energy And Mineral Resources Opens The Results Of Freeport Smelter Fire Investigation

JAKARTA - Director General of Mineral and Coal (Minerba) Tri Winarno revealed the results of data collection and field investigations for the PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) smelter fire incident in Gresik, East Java. The fire incident that occurred at the sulfate acid factory caused the purification operational activity to stop.

Tri revealed, based on the results of gathering facts in the field, it was found that all WESP material components suffered severe damage and could not be operated.

"Then the work area has been barricaded. There are direct and indirect witnesses with statements supporting the incident and other facts that show indications of hotspots and technical disturbances in tools before the blackout occurs," Tri said in a Hearing Meeting with Commission XII DPR RI, Wednesday, February 19.

With this fact, Tri continued, the team's conclusion according to the criteria is stipulated in the Decree of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Number 1827 K/30/MEM of 2018 concerning Guidelines for the Implementation of Good Mining Engineering Kaidah, the incident is categorized as a 'dangerous incident'.

Tri continued, with this conclusion, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources issued 8 actions that must be taken by PTFI, including:

First, analyze the need for temperature control installation or hot detectors within the WESP as well as monitoring cameras in the USP area.

Second, schedule the right start-up feed so that the adequacy of technical supervisors and operational supervisors for all equipment carried out by commissioning.

Third, analyze the need to install automatic fire extinguishers in the WESP area.

Fourth, create a series of instruments so that troubleshooting in case of an emergency can be done easily, agilely, and quickly.

Fifth, install an alarm indicating emergency conditions in the control room area and an emergency activity button in the field along with the results of the assessment.

Sixth, find out and apply HAZOP references according to the needs of other companies with relatively the same technology and processing operational activities.

Seventh, carry out more in-depth assessments related to internal and external risk management based on the results of the Labfor and East Java Regional Police to get the root cause of the incident so that the same incident does not happen again.

Eighth, simplifying the system and procedures for the management of safety management systems implemented in the transition era so that safety implementation is integrated and connected to the right target.

Tri said that his party had also been informed by PTFI that the damage was fully covered by insurance.

"The incident was then completely replaced by insurance," said Tri.