Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Bahlil Lahadalia, expresses deep condolences and concerns at the same time for landslide incident at Freeport's underground mining area in Papua early this month, where seven workers had been trapped but only two of them have been found.

“We have coordinated with PT Freeport Indonesia's management, particularly with pak Tony Wenas [Freeport Indonesia’s President Director]. We have decided to stop all production activities and focus all manpower, equipment, and time on rescuing the workers still trapped underground,” Bahlil said on Friday, September 26, 2025.

Since the landslide nearly three weeks ago, production at Freeport has been halted, and this has had significant impacts on productivity, as well as on the company's and the region's revenues. “This incident has certainly impacted both productivity and the revenue of the company and the local government,” Bahlil cited.

The government holds a 51 percent stake in Freeport, and Bahlil hopes that the search for the trapped workers will be resolved soon.

"We continue to monitor developments on-site. Our team, including the Director of Mine Inspectors, is on location in Tembagapura and has reported that the search is ongoing, but no production activities have resumed yet,” he said.

As earlier reported, the wet mudslide incident at Freeport Indonesia’s underground mine occurred on Monday night, September 8, 2025. The initial spill point came from the ore collapse area (Draw Point) 20-West, where the mud slid approximately 400 meters from Panel 23-East toward Panel 28-West and then split, impacting all infrastructure at the ore extraction level, except at Panel 13-West and Panel 28-34 East & West.

Additionally, several other affected areas included the ore haulage level and the tunnel where the ore is collected (Chute Gallery).

Director General of Minerals and Coal at the ESDM ministry, Tri Winarno, said that the seven workers trapped consisted of five Indonesians, one Chilean, and one South African. The government has coordinated with the embassies of their respective countries regarding the progress of the search.

“There are foreign nationals − one from Chile and one from South Africa, and the other five are Indonesian. We’ve already communicated with the respective embassies,” Tri said at the House of Representatives (DPR) building compound on Monday, September 15, 2025.

According to Tri, due to the incident, the mining process at PTFI in the GBC area has been temporarily halted. This has also affected the company’s total production.

"Production is definitely impacted. For now, production is halted only in GBC. But the drop might be around 30 percent," Tri said.