Freeport to raise copper production by end of year
Freeport to raise copper production by end of year
JAKARTA (JP): PT Freeport Indonesia, an American-Indonesian company operating a copper mine in Irian Jaya, will operate at full capacity after expansion facilities have been completed at the end of the year.
"We informed President Soeharto that we will be at full production of copper and gold by the end of this year ... and 1996 will be the first year of full production at the new rate," James R. Moffett, chairman of Freeport McMoRant Copper & Gold of the United States, said after meeting with Soeharto at the President's residence on Thursday.
Freeport McMorant holds a 80-percent stake of Freeport Indonesia, which is also 10-percent owned by the Indonesian government and 10 percent by PT Indocopper Investama, an affiliate of the Bakrie Group.
Moffett did not specify the new rate of production. But according to Freeport Indonesia's vice president Paul S. Murphy, the company's production in 1996 will reach 115,000 tons of copper ore a day, with a metal equivalent of 1.2 billion pounds of copper and 1.5 million ounces of gold.
Moffett said that Freeport Indonesia's daily production will likely increase to 900 million pounds of copper and 1.1 million ounces of gold this year from 770 million pounds of copper and 800,000 ounces of gold in 1994.
He said that he will hold a meeting here on Monday with the chairman of Mitsubishi Materials Corporation of Japan to discuss the plans of a copper smelting plant in Gresik, East Java.
The smelting plant, which will have a production capacity of 200,000 tons of copper cathodes a year, will be 70 percent owned by Mitsubishi, 20 percent by Freeport McMoRant and 10 percent by Fluor Daniel Inc. of the United States.
"We will discuss the investment for this Gresik smelter, that will need US$650 million," said Moffett, who was accompanied by Minister of Mines and Energy I.B. Sudjana when he met President Soeharto.
Moffett said the chairman of Mitsubishi Materials will also visit Freeport Indonesia's mine in Irian Jaya and the site of the smelter in East Java.(riz)