Withdraw, From Target, Freeport's Illegal Cat Mining Operates 2029

Mining (Photo: Doc Antara)

JAKARTA - PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) estimates that its new mine, the Wild Cat, will only operate in 2029. This target deviates from the initial target set in 2028.

PTFI President Director Tony Wenas said the delay in mining operations at Grasberg was due to a landslide at the Grasberg Block Cave (GBC) underground mine that occurred on September 8, 2025 and killed 7 workers.

"This wild cat underground mine will begin we planned to start in 2028 but will be pushed back for about a year because an incident has occurred," Tony said in a hearing with Commission VI of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Monday, November 24.

Tony said, if it operates later, the Wild Cat mine will now be Freeport's fourth underground mine. So far, PTFI already has three underground mines namely Grassberg Block Cave (GBC), Deep Mill Level Zone (DMLZ), and Big Gossan.

Furthermore, Tony also estimates that the performance of the second semester of 2025 will not reach the target due to the landslide incident on GBC.

He estimates that copper metal production will reach 70 percent of the plan, while gold metal is estimated to only reach 50 percent of the target.

Meanwhile, sales revenue will only reach 82 percent of the plan, helped by a very significant increase in commodity prices

He detailed that the sales volume of copper until the end of the year only reached 537,000 tons or only 70 percent of the sales volume in the 2025 RKAB submission which reached 770.000 tons.