The new copper smelter, with an investment value of US$3.17 billion or approximately Rp48 trillion, has entered the pre-commissioning phase. It is expected that the commissioning will be completed by May 2024, with full operation scheduled for the following month.

Jenpino Ngabdi, Vice President Director of PT Freeport Indonesia, stated that the construction of the smelter is progressing according to schedule. "PTFI's smelter will begin production in August 2024 and subsequently ramp up to full capacity by the end of December 2024," Jenpino said during a visit to the Manyar Smelter Project on February 29, 2024.

The initial production phase of the Manyar Smelter is expected to start at 50 percent of its total capacity, processing approximately 32,000 wet metric tons (wmt) of concentrate. Subsequently, the concentrate processing capacity will be increased to 100 percent by December 2024.

PTFI targets to process approximately 480,000 wmt of concentrate at the Manyar Smelter from August to December 2024. "Once the smelter operates at full capacity by the end of 2024, all of PTFI's mining products will be processed domestically," said Jenpino.

It is worth noting that the construction of this smelter is mandated by PTFI's special mining business license (IUPK). This project represents PTFI's second smelter, with the first one built in 1996 and managed by PT Smelting.

As of the end of December 2023, Freeport has invested US$3.1 billion or approximately Rp48 trillion in the smelter. This single-line design copper smelter, the largest in the world, will be capable of processing 1.7 million tons of copper concentrate per year and producing up to 600,000 tons of copper cathodes annually.

The main products of the smelter include copper cathodes, pure gold and silver bars, as well as platinum group metals (PGM). The Freeport smelter will also produce by-products such as sulfuric acid, gypsum, and lead.

Meanwhile, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif reiterated that the relaxation of Freeport's copper concentrate exports has not been decided. The government is still waiting for Freeport's commitment to commence commissioning the Manyar Smelter in Gresik, East Java, in May 2024.

This stance was conveyed by Arifin after inspecting the progress of the Manyar smelter project, which has entered the pre-commissioning phase, on February 29, 2024. "So, we are looking into this, we see the progress, we are not making promises. We both promise, they promise to finish, we also promise to finish [export relaxation]," said Arifin.

Recently, PTFI has been lobbying the government to extend the relaxation of copper concentrate exports until December 2024. This is because the new smelter is claimed to require time to reach full production capacity after commissioning in May 2024. PTFI is considering reducing production capacity by around 40 percent in the 2024 annual production plan (RKAB) in line with the deadline for the copper concentrate export relaxation set in May this year. The production adjustment is made due to the limited smelter input capacity at that time.

"The promise is May 2024, it will start commissioning, right? It's fair, isn't it? If that happens, we also have our obligation [export relaxation]," said Arifin.