The Indonesian Government has announced plans to issue a six-month permit to PT Freeport Indonesia for exporting copper concentrate, reported Reuters.
This move is aimed at ensuring the country continues to receive royalty payments while Freeport’s smelter in Manyar, Gresik in East Java province is being repaired following a fire last October.
The company received permission to export copper concentrate until December 2024.
Earlier this year, the company was in talks with the Indonesian Government to secure an extension.
The company has not exported copper concentrate since the expiry of its last permit at the end of 2024 and has been operating at 40% capacity due to a rising stockpile of copper concentrate, which has reached 400,000 tonnes.
Indonesia Energy Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said: “We are giving six months so that they can expeditiously fix the smelter so that Indonesia can get state revenues from the royalties.”
The country, which is rich in resources, has implemented an export ban on unprocessed minerals such as copper and nickel to foster the development of its domestic processing industry.
Freeport Indonesia has been allocated a quota of approximately 1.27 million tonnes for the export of its copper concentrate, according to Freeport’s chief executive Tony Wenas, as reported by Bisnis.com.
Wenas added that Freeport Indonesia will now seek a formal export permit from the country’s Trade Ministry.
A spokesperson for the Trade Ministry confirmed that Freeport Indonesia had submitted its request.
During the launch of Freeport Indonesia’s $630m (Rp10.37trn) precious metals refinery at the Gresik smelter complex, Lahadalia highlighted the facility’s capabilities to process gold, silver, platinum and palladium.
The Freeport Indonesia smelter is designed to process two million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of copper concentrate, making it the world’s largest copper processing site.
The facility’s output will complement the company’s existing PT Smelting smelter facility, which processes 1mtpa of copper concentrate.
Once operational, Freeport Indonesia will have a total processing capacity of 3mtpa of copper concentrate.
