Freeport's Second Smelter in Gresik to Resume Operations in September 2026

PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) is targeting September 2026 for its Manyar smelter in Gresik, East Java, to resume production. The company’s second smelter has been idle since the fourth quarter of last year due to a disruption in concentrate supply caused by a wet ore mud landslide at the Grasberg Block Cave underground mine on 8 September 2025. PT Freeport Indonesia President Director Tony Wenas stated that the Manyar smelter is scheduled to begin producing copper cathodes again from September 2026. He noted that copper concentrate from Papua has already started arriving at the facility, but the company is waiting for sufficient volumes before firing up the furnace at a larger capacity. Wenas added that operations will not immediately reach full capacity in September, with the smelter initially running at below 30%. He said that by the end of this year, ore production from the underground mine is expected to reach only about 65% of capacity, with full production anticipated by the end of 2027. The PTFI smelter is a copper concentrate refining facility located in the JIIPE Special Economic Zone in Manyar, Gresik, East Java. Construction began in October 2021, and the first copper cathode was officially produced on 23 September 2024, inaugurated by former President Joko Widodo. Designed as the world’s largest single-line smelter, it has a processing capacity of 1.7 million tonnes of copper concentrate per year and can produce approximately 600,000 to 700,000 tonnes of copper cathode annually. Together with its first smelter operated by PT Smelting Gresik, PT Freeport Indonesia’s two smelters will refine a total of 3 million tonnes of copper concentrate per year, yielding 1 million tonnes of copper cathode, 50 tonnes of gold, and 200 tonnes of silver. The cumulative investment for the Manyar smelter project, which occupies 100 hectares, has reached US$3.7 billion. The facility is equipped with a refinery unit, precious metals refining unit, oxygen unit, sulphuric acid unit, desalination unit, and an effluent and wastewater treatment plant to maximise the use of raw materials, by-products, and waste for a high-efficiency smelting and refining process.