Freeport agrees to build smelter in Timika

Copper and gold miner PT Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of American mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., has reached an agreement with the Indonesian government to build a copper smelter at its home base in Timika, Papua, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) said in a statement on Monday.

The smelter project will be developed in an industrial zone to be built by the Papua provincial government at Pomako, the seaport of Timika.

?The provincial government has expressed readiness to develop infrastructure, including for the smelter project. At present, the (Pomako) area already has port and power facilities which still need to be expanded. All are connected to the main road,? Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman said explained during his visit to Timika.

Sudirman said the smelter that will be built at Pomako will be fed with ore from the underground mine to be developed by Freeport.

Papua Governor Lukas Enembe said the provincial government is ready to invest Rp 2 trillion to develop the industrial zone. The industrial zone is expected in the future to house not only the Freeport smelter, but also a petrochemical plant, a cement plant and an LGP filling plant. As a matter of fact, at present, preparation is in progress there for the construction of a cement packaging plant with an investment of US$25 million provided by Freeport.

In the beginning, the local government will prepare 650 ha of lands for the industrial zone project. Later, it will be expanded to cover a total of 2000 ha.

Sudirman paid a visit to the area on February 13-14.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon