Mitsubishi Materials, Freeport Indonesia expand copper smelter capacity

Mitsubishi Materials

19/02/2022 06:42

JAKARTA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Indonesia's PT Smelting, a joint
venture between Mitsubishi Materials Corp  5711.T  and Freeport
Indonesia, on Saturday launched construction of a 3.2 trillion
rupiah ($223 million) expansion of its East Java copper smelting
facility.
    The expansion will increase output capacity at the plant to
342,000 tonnes of copper cathode from 300,000 tonnes currently,
the company said in a statement.
    "The expansion is targeted to be completed before the end of
December 2023," said Irjuniawan Radjamin, a PT Smelting
director.
    PT Smelting processes copper concentrate produced by
Freeport Indonesia, a unit of Freeport-McMoRan  FCX.N , from the
Grasberg mine in Indonesia's Papua region.
    The expansion will boost input capacity at the plant to 1.3
million tonnes copper concentrate from 1 million tonnes at
present, the statement said.
    Resource-rich Indonesia is keen to develop its downstream
metal industry to boost investment and create jobs, with
President Joko Widodo saying the government plans to ban exports
of raw materials to encourage such investments.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2RF12Z
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($1 = 14,325.0000 rupiah)

 (Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy; editing by Richard Pullin)
 ((Fransiska.Nangoy@thomsonreuters.com;))