Halted Temporarily, Freeport's GBC Underground Mine Resumes Operations

PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) has begun gradually operating its Grasberg Block Cave (GBC) underground mine again after it was halted due to a landslide incident in 2025. President Director of Freeport Indonesia, Tony Wenas, stated that the company is currently focusing on the recovery process, particularly in Production Block 1, which was the most severely affected by the incident. Meanwhile, mining activities in Production Block 2 and Production Block 3 in the GBC area have already commenced on a limited basis. “And the plan is to ramp up from May until the first quarter of 2027, when we will begin operating Production Block 1, which is indeed high grade,” Tony said during a Working Meeting with Commission VII of the House of Representatives, on Monday (13/4/2026). From a production perspective, the company projects ore mining volume to reach 139,000 tonnes per day in 2025 and increase to 156,000 tonnes per day in 2026. Production is then expected to return to normal levels of around 200,000 tonnes of ore per day in 2027 and continue until 2029. “And in 2027, we will be able to achieve production of around 200,000 tonnes of ore per day, which is our normal production level, and so on until 2029 and beyond,” he said. For metal production, in 2026 the company targets 1.1 billion pounds of copper and around 26 tonnes of gold. All of this gold production is planned to be absorbed by PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam). “Then the work plan for 2027 will increase to 1.5 billion pounds of copper metal and gold could reach 39 tonnes or 1.3 million ounces. In 2028, it will reach even higher levels of 1.7 billion pounds of copper and 43 tonnes of gold and so on,” Tony said.