Jakarta, IO – Indonesia will soon have a large-scale processing and refining plant (smelter), even billed as the largest single line smelter in the world expected to begin operation next year and be managed by PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) in the Java Integrated Industrial and Port Estate (JIIPE) Special Economic Zone (KEK) in Gresik, East Java.
The coordinating maritime affairs and investment minister, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, said the plan has the capacity to produce up to 600,000 tons of cathode copper and 50 tons of gold per year, per CNBC Indonesia, Monday (10/7).
Luhut also said that the plant will have a big impact and become a key component of Indonesia’s focus on downstream processing. According to him, if this was carried out decades ago, Indonesia would have had sufficient funds to build its infrastructure.
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In addition to producing copper cathode, the smelter will produce by-products in the form of 1.5 million tons of sulfuric acid, 1.3 million tons of copper slag and 150,000 tons of gypsum per year.
When the smelter is fully operational, it is expected to create some 1,500 new jobs in addition to the 40,000 jobs created during the construction process. As of this publication, the progress of the construction has reached 70.6 percent. (bp)