Copper miner Freeport Indonesia expects operations of its $3.7 billion Manyar smelter in East Java to ramp up in the third quarter of next year after being halted by a fire in October, an official said on Wednesday.
“Based on the repair plan for the affected facilities, it is estimated that the ramp-up of (Freeport’s) smelter operations can begin in the third quarter of 2025,” its spokesperson, Katri Krisnati.
Separately, Freeport Indonesia parent company, MIND ID hopes the smelter can operate normally within six months, its chief executive Hendi Prio Santoso told a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday.
MIND ID holds a 51.2% share of Freeport Indonesia.
Operational issues at the smelter prompted Freeport to ask the Indonesian government to extend its copper concentrate export license, which expires at the end of this year.
“Due to fire incident at our smelter, the operation was stopped, and we have to repair it first. For that, we need some flexibility to be able to export in 2025 until the smelter is back in operation,” Freeport Indonesia chief executive Tony Wenas told reporters.
He said the company was also requesting additional export quota for this year.
Mining minister Bahlil Lahadalia told an industry summit on Wednesday the government had yet to decide whether to approve the request.
Freeport Indonesia was forced to stop copper cathode output at its newly operated smelter after the fire broke at its gas cleaning unit.
Sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters US mining company Freeport McMoRan, which operates Freeport Indonesia’s mine and smelter, would postpone sales of refined copper from Indonesia until the second quarter of 2025.
The Manyar copper smelter was completed in June and started output in September. However, production was delayed by a steam and water leak.
Long production delays at the Manyar smelter, with an output capacity of 480,000 metric tons of copper cathode a year, were already narrowing an expected 2025 surplus of the metal and supporting prices.
(By Bernadette Christina and Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Martin Petty)
