Freeport: No need for Grasberg force majeure

Freeport: No need for Grasberg force majeure

OsterDow Jones, Singapore

PT Freeport Indonesia said on Thursday it doesn't foresee the need to declare a force majeure despite the partial closure of its Grasberg mine.

"We are in close contact with our customers, but at this moment, we don't have to declare a force majeure," a company spokesman told OsterDowJones.

Parts of the open pit mine at PT Freeport's Grasberg operations in West Papua have been closed since Oct. 9, when a fatal landslide killed four employees.

Four others are still missing.

It is still uncertain as to when the company can resume full production at Grasberg, the spokesman said.

"The resumption will depend on the recovery and cleanup activity, and our top priority is to search for the remaining victims," the spokesman said.

But he added that the company expects to resume full production in the current quarter.

Grasberg, the world's largest copper and gold mine, produced 1.13 million tons of copper concentrate and around 2.2 million ounces of gold in the first nine months of 2003.

U.S.-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., PT Freeport's parent company, said it expects to lose around 10 percent of its projected 2003 sales volume of 1.4 billion pounds of copper and 2.6 million ounces of gold due to the partial closure.

Daily copper-ore production has been slashed to 160,000- 180,000 metric tons from 250,000 metric tons.

Grasberg's partial closure has exacerbated the already-tight global copper concentrate supply, leading one of its major customers, Japan's Pan Pacific Copper Ltd., to trim its production forecast.