Freeport to increase copper ore output
Freeport to increase copper ore output
JAKARTA (JP): PT Freeport Indonesia Company (FI), an
Indonesian-American copper firm, is likely to increase its daily
copper ore production to 115,000 tons next year from 70,000 tons
at present, a company report says.
The report said that the company anticipates producing some
499,000 tons of copper and 46.6 tons of gold per year.
FI, under the extension of its mining contract from the
government, has expanded its concession area from merely 10,000
hectares to 2.6 million hectares in Irian Jaya. Its old
concession area is called Bloc A and the expansion area Bloc B.
Bloc A is capable of producing 70,000 tons of ore daily,
equivalent to 750,000 pounds of copper and 650,000 ounces of
gold.
The report quoted James Robert Moffett, FI's chief
commissioner and chairman of Freeport McMoRan Cooper & Gold Inc.
(FCX) of the United States, as saying last week that FI recently
identified new copper reserves in the Big Gossan area of Block A
with probable deposits of 32 million tons with an average content
of 2.9 percent of copper and 0.91 grams of gold per ton, or one
million kilograms of copper and 28,000 kilograms of gold.
"The total Big Gossan geologic resource and proven reserve is
now estimated to be larger than the original Ertsberg deposit
discovered in 1967," Moffett said.
"Current estimates are that the Big Gossan deposit could be
brought into production for less than US$130 million with
development that could begin as early as late this year or early
1995," he added.
New deposit
He said that the company -- which is 80 percent owned by FCX,
10 percent by the Indonesian government and 10 percent by PT
Indocopper Investama of the Bakrie Group -- also found another
new deposit at the Lembah Tembaga area at an average of 1.3
percent of copper, 0.13 grams per ton of gold and nine grams per
ton of silver, during its initial exploratory drilling.
At the 910-meter downhole, the company has found the stockwork
copper mineralization at an average of 1.21 percent copper, 0.27
grams per ton of gold and 2.8 grams per ton of silver, he said.
The company, which has drilled four rigs at the Lembah Tembaga
prospect area, now requires feasibility studies to determine the
commercial level of the area, he said.
A FCS subsidiary, PT Irja Eastern Minerals Corp., which now
holds a one-million hectare concession area in Irian Jaya, also
drilled three rigs at the Etna Bay prospect area.
Moffett said that the Irja Eastern also identified new
deposits at the Wanagon and Wabu gold prospect area which was
estimated to have geologic resources of between 20,000 and 40,000
kilograms of gold.
"Again, further drilling will be required to determine the
extent and commercial potential of these resources," he said.
(fhp)