Freeport Fails to Meet Production Target
23 August 2013 07:26 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Nearly two months after resuming operations, Freeport Indonesia is at 90 percent of its normal production capacity. However, the mining company estimated it would only be able to produce two million tons of copper concentrate this year. Under normal conditions, Freeport could produce 2.5 million tons of copper concentrate.
"This year, we've lost over 1.5 months--almost two, in fact--because we had to cease operations. So we may only be able to reach 80 percent of our target," Freeport's President Director Rozik B. Soetjipto said in Jakarta, Thursday, August 22.
Despite the lower production, Rozik guaranteed that the company will not lower its supply of concentrate to Smelting, a company in Gresik, East Java. Rozik said that each year Freeport supplies about one million tons of copper concentrate to the metal processing company where Freeport owns a 25-percent stake.
"(PT Smelting) Gresik is part of our obligation when we signed the contract of work, we have to build it. Supplying to Gresik is a top priority," said Rozik.
On May 14, Freeport's underground training facility at the Big Gossan mine collapsed. The company was forced to shut down the underground mine for investigative reasons. Another incident happened the following month on June 1 when piles of wet ore materials also collapsed. As a result, Freeport ceased its operations.
The company resumed its full operations on July 9 after the government allowed it.
BERNADETTE CHRISTINA
