Good News, Freeport's Smelter Project In Gresik, Worth IDR 43 Trillion, Has Absorbed 1,800 Manpower: 98 Percent Are Local, The Rest Are Foreigners

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Setpres)

JAKARTA - PT Freeport Indonesia has absorbed as many as 1,800 construction workers in the construction of a smelter in the Java Integrated and Industrial Port Estate (JIIPE) area in Gresik Regency, East Java, with details of 98 percent of Indonesian workers and the rest foreign workers.

"For the details of workers, about 8 percent are workers from residents around the project or ring 1. Then ring 2 reaches 14 percent and ring 3 is about 28 percent, while in ring 4 it is 50 percent," said Freeport Smelter Project Manager, Erika Silva, in a discussion with journalists in Gresik, Tuesday.

He also said that the progress of the smelter construction has now reached 30 percent, with 7,500 piles installed, as well as water tanks, sulfuric acid tanks, and several other items.

Therefore, Erika continued, her party will continue to accelerate the processing plant megaproject built in the JIIPE area, so that by the end of 2022 progress can reach 50 percent.

PT Freeport Indonesia's Vice President of Corporate Communication, Riza Pratama said the investment to build the smelter with a capacity of 1.7 million tons reached US$3 billion or around IDR 43 trillion, and by the end of the year it would require around US$1.6 billion to achieve 50 percent progress.

With the smelter, said Riza, 100 percent of the concentrate from PTFI will be processed in Indonesia. The details are 1.7 million tons in the JIIPE Smelter and 0.3 million tons in PT Smelting. "And precious metal refinery (PMR) reaches 6,000 tons per day," he said.

He added that this refining facility will process 550 thousand copper cathodes, 35 tons of pure gold and silver bars, platinum group metals (PGM) and sulfuric acid by-products, slag, gypsum, and lead.

"Production waste will be absorbed by surrounding industries, such as sulfuric acid which is estimated to reach 1.8 million tons per year which will be used by PT Petrokimia Gresik for raw material for fertilizer production, as well as copper slag of 1.3 million tons which will be used by PT Semen Indonesia," he said.