Indosmelt secures copper ore supply from Freeport

Indonesian smelting company Indosmelt which will build a copper smelting plant in Maros, South Sulawesi, has secured copper ore supply from world?s major copper and gold miner Freeport Indonesia, Kontan reported on Monday.

Indosmelt?s president director M. Natsir Mansyur said in Jakarta over the weekend that the smelting operator would likely receive supply of about 240,000 tons of copper ore from Freeport Indonesia a year. He said that Indosmelt and Freeport were currently preparing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the cooperation.

?We hope the MoU could be signed soon,? Natsir said, adding that if the construction of the smelting plant could be started next year, the smelter would be able to begin commercial operation in 2017.

The company earlier said that it plans to invest about US$700 million to build the copper smelting plant, which would have capacity of 400,000 tons a year. Natrsir hoped that in addition to the 240,000 tons of copper supply from Freeport, Indosmelt will also receive other 160,000 tons from PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara.

?Our target is about 60 percent of the copper ore supply will come from Freeport and the other 40 percent from Newmont,? Natsir added. (*)