Starting From Freeport Worker's Wife Showing Off Her Treasure On TikTok Making Colleague Surprised, Concentrate Theft Case Revealed

ILLUSTRATION/PHOTO VIA BETWEEN

TIMIKA - The management of PT Freeport Indonesia reported five workers, including company internal security officers and other workers, for stealing concentrate at the Mile 74 ore processing plant, Tembagapura.

Mimika Police Head of Criminal Investigation, Iptu Bertu Anwar, said the case had been reported to the Tembagapura Police since February 19 and has now been handed over to the Mimika Police.

The five suspects who stole Freeport concentrate were RS, DW, PKP, A, and A.

"Currently there are other perpetrators that we are investigating. We are still calculating the total loss suffered by the company," said Anwar as quoted by Antara, Friday, April 8.

This case was revealed after the wife of one of the suspects made a post on the social media application TikTok about her house, vehicle, and property in a city on the island of Java.

The suspect's colleagues, who both work as employees in the PT Freeport Indonesia area, witnessed the posting of the suspect's wife.

However, he was surprised because his friend had abundant wealth, while they had not even worked together for five years in the Freeport mining area.

The TikTok video of the wife of one of the suspects then went viral everywhere and reached the ears of the management of PT Freeport Indonesia, who then traced the truth of the upload by the wife of one of the suspects by checking the electronic transactions of the parties involved.

Anwar said, based on the statements of the 5 suspects when questioned by the police, it was known that they had their respective roles.

Some are in charge of guarding the room where the concentrate is stored, another is in charge of taking the concentrate and another is carrying the concentrate so that it can be brought out of Tembagapura to Timika.

"They have their respective roles and duties and they acknowledge all of them," he said.

Of the five suspects currently languishing in the Mimika Police detention cell, two are known to be employees of PT Freeport Indonesia, while the other three are employees of a sub-contracting company.

Usually, in 1 ton of concentrate content of PT Freeport Indonesia, there is as much as 22 percent copper, 2.5 grams of gold, and 40 grams of silver. The rest is silt, sand or iron, and so on.

Within a year, PT Freeport Indonesia is able to produce as much as 1.1 million tons of concentrate which is sent from the processing plant at mile 74 of Tembagapura to the Amamapare Port via pipelines for further shipment to Gresik, East Java, or exported abroad.