Today, President Prabowo Inaugurates Freeport's Gold Smelter In Gresik

The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is scheduled to inaugurate a smelter or gold refining facility through PT Freeport Indonesia's Precious Metal Refinery (PMR) in Gresik, East Java, today, Monday, March 17.

Deputy for Protocol, Press and Media of the Presidential Secretariat Yusuf Permana, explained that the inauguration of PMR in Gresik was a series of a number of activities during the President's working visit to East Java Province, on Monday.

"Mr. President is scheduled to depart during the day to Gresik Regency to inaugurate the Precious Metal Refinery (PMR) factory owned by PT Freeport Indonesia, which is the anoda mud refining facility that uses the world's largest hydrometallurgy process," Yusuf said in a written statement, quoted by Antara.

Yusuf explained that PMR is the first modern gold refining facility in the world that is integrated from upstream, namely mining and processing downstream or purification. This, according to Yusuf, shows the government's commitment to accelerating the downstream process in this country.

Based on the information gathered, the PMR factory can produce up to 52 tons of gold per year.

The gold production is carried out from processed anode mud as much as 6,000 tons per year. The anode mud is a side product of the copper concentrate processing process.

Previously, the smelter of Freeport's copper refining facility had been inaugurated by the 7th President Joko Widodo. The smelter is equipped with a main facility in the form of a copper smelting and refining plant with a precious metal refining unit and various supporting facilities.

After inaugurating the smelter in Gresik, President Prabowo will leave for Sidoarjo Regency and continue the agenda for the inauguration of 17 stadiums in various regions in Indonesia.

The inauguration of the stadium will be centered at Sidoarjo Stadium, East Java. Then in the afternoon, the President is scheduled to return to Jakarta via Juanda International Airport.