Freeport Boss Says Will Start Operational Gresik Smelter Next Week

Smelter (photo: Antara)

The new smelter belonging to PT Freeport Indonesia, located at the Java Integrated Industrial and Ports Estate (JIIPE), Gresik, East Java, is planned to be inaugurated next week.

The copper smelter completed the commissioning process last May. The commissioning process consists of testing, experiments, trials, to ensure that the equipment and systems that are designed, installed, and operated are appropriate as an effort to complete this smelter project to be completed substantially.

"ActuALLY, next week we will try to inaugurate the operating system. So everyone has seen, everything is that everything has worked well," said PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) President Director Tony Wenas in MINDIALogue quoted on Friday, June 21.

Some of the preparations made include shiploader components, conveyor belts, silver burner, desalination plant, and oxygen plant.

"It's just a matter of maybe the next few days we'll turn on furnace, heat up the furnace, and everything is connected so it's ready to operate," Tony added.

Tony also ensured that the construction of the smelter to the inauguration of this smelter was in accordance with the timeline planned by the company from the start.

The second PTFI smelter project, which was built since October 2021, is designed to be able to purify the copper concentrate with a copper concentrate melting capacity of 1.7 million tons per year, which makes this smelter the largest copper refining site in the world.

This smelter uses double flash smelting and converting smelter hydrometallurgy PMR technology and can produce copper cathodes, gold, pure silver bars and Platinum Group Metals (PGM). While the resulting byproducts are sulfate, terak, gypsum and lead.

In the VOI sub-district, it was previously stated that the first production in August was the same year. Meanwhile, the increase in production to full operations is planned for the end of 2024.