Visit Freeport Smelter In Gresik, Minister Of Industry: Wide Impact On The National Economy

Illustration (Photo: Doc. Kemenperin)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Industry is said to continue to implement downstream policies to increase the added value of natural resources in the country.

Minister of Industry (Menperin) Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita said this strategic effort had a broad impact on the national economy, such as increasing foreign exchange from investment and exports as well as increasing the number of labor absorption.

“The downstream policy is one of the sources of state revenue, with its derivative products to meet the needs of domestic and foreign markets. This policy is in line with the President's directive that the government will stop the export of raw materials such as mineral and coal in stages," he said in an official statement during a working visit to Surabaya, Sunday, February 20.

According to the Minister of Industry, his party appreciates the downstream efforts of PT Smelting, by increasing the production capacity of the copper smelter by up to 30 percent. Thus, its production capacity will increase from 300,000 tons to 342,000 tons of copper cathode per year.

"We received a report that the investment from the expansion this time reached 231 million US dollars, and the construction is targeted to be completed before the end of December 2023," he said.

For information, PT Smelting processes copper concentrate from the PT Freeport Indonesia mine in Papua. PT Smelting has three factories, consisting of a smelter, a refinery and a sulfuric acid plant.

“PT Smelting, which was founded in 1996 in Gresik, is the first mineral refinery development in Indonesia. With this expansion, PT Smelting will also become the first and only copper smelter plant in Indonesia," he said.

Through the construction of this new factory, PT Smelting, which initially only processed 1 million tons of copper concentrate per year, will increase its capacity to 1.3 million tons of concentrate per year.

“Gresik will produce a total concentrate absorption of 3.3 million tons. This means that Gresik will become the center for copper downstreaming," said the Minister of Industry.

On the same occasion, the Director of Business and Commercial Development of PT Smelting Irjuniawan P Radjamin said that the expansion project this time was also to add a new sulfuric acid plant. In addition, it increases the capacity of several equipment in the smelter and increases the number of electrolysis cells in the refinery.

“PT Smelting continues to be committed to continuing to contribute to our beloved country. With this increase in production capacity, it will certainly strengthen Indonesia as one of the world's copper producers," he said.