Reviewing The Freeport Smelter Construction In Gresik, Minister Of Energy And Mineral Resources: Progress Has Reached 34.9 Percent

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Arifin Tasrif reviewed the progress of the Freeport smelter construction located in the Java Integrated and Industrial Port Estate (JIIPE) area, Gresik Regency, East Java, Friday, July 29.

During the visit, Minister Arifin saw firsthand the location of the 100-hectare project accompanied by the President Director of PT Freeport Indonesia, Tony Wenas.

"I see the progress is measurable, and now it has reached 34.9 percent, with costs that have been spent more than 1 billion US dollars. It is targeted that by the end of this year the progress can reach 50 percent," said Minister Arifin as quoted by ANTARA, Friday.

He said the government would continue to encourage the acceleration of development, one of its efforts is the existence of regulations regarding mining, as well as regulations regarding the necessity of downstreaming.

"We hope that the second quarter of 2023 construction will be completed," he said hopefully.

The President Director of PT Freeport Indonesia, Tony Wenas, admitted that the current development progress is quite good, and has exceeded the target of 34.9 percent.

It is hoped that by the end of 2022 the progress of the Freeport smelter construction can reach 50 percent, at a cost of around 1.5 billion US dollars.

"For now, what we have done is that several pailings (pile foundations) have been installed, reaching 11 thousand of the total 16 thousand pailing or 65 percent, with concrete pouring reaching 20 thousand cubic meters, from the total plan of around 220 thousand cubic meters," he said.

He said development activities have been carried out intensively until now, with the contractor company PT Ciyoda International Indonesia (CII) which focuses on land compaction, and is assisted by Adhi Karya, as well as several other local contractors.

He targets that the physical construction of the Freeport Smelter construction will be completely completed by the end of 2023, and it is not only the Manyar Smelter but the expansion of PT Smelting which will be added by 300 thousand tons.

"We plan to start production in May 2024," said Tony.

In carrying out the progress of the Freeport Smelter construction in Gresik, he encountered a major challenge in the field, namely the COVID-19 situation which made work halted due to the Large-Scale Social Restriction (PSBB) policy.

However, with the mutually agreed rescheduling, the world's largest single line copper smelter project is now back on track.

"We believe that this project will be able to be completed according to the target, even though the schedule is quite tight, as agreed by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources," said Tony.