RI's copper smelter to produce 150,000 tons

RI's copper smelter to produce 150,000 tons

SYDNEY (Dow Jones): Indonesia's pioneer copper smelter, PT Smelting Copper Co., is on target to produce 150,000 metric tons of copper cathodes in 1999, Koji Shigemura, manager of investor relations with Japan's Mitsubishi Materials Corp. in Tokyo told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday.

Mitsubishi Materials Corp. has a 60.5 percent interest in the company. PT Freeport Indonesia, a unit of U.S. Freeport McMoran copper & Gold Inc. has 25 percent; Nippon Mining & Metals Corp. 5 percent and Mitsubishi Corp. 9.5 percent.

According to Shigemura, there are no production problems at the smelter and the plant is on "schedule to produce 150,000 tons" of copper cathodes.

Located in Gresik, East Java, the smelter and refinery has a design capacity to produce 200,000 metric tons copper and is expected to produce at full capacity in 2001.

It's scheduled to produce 180,000 tons in 2000, Shigemura said.

Early in February, an official with Mitsubishi Corp., said that commercial production at the copper plant in Gresik, in North Surabaya, was delayed to March because initial the batch of production had a high level of impurities. Commercial production was initially planned to begin in January.