Freeport-Antam

Acid Plant Database June 8, 2015

Owner	Freeport McMoRan Copper	-
Location	Indonesia
Background	-
Website	-
Plant	-
Coordinates*	-
Type of Plant	Metallurgical
Gas Source	Copper Flash Furnace
Plant Capacity	-
SA/DA	-
Emissions	-
Status	Design
Year Built	-
Technology	-
Contractor	-
Remarks	-
Pictures	-
General	-
References	-
News	February 12, 2015 - Papua Governor Lukas Enembe and a team from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and other relevant ministries will conduct a survey of potential locations for the construction of miner PT Freeport Indonesia’s smelter in Papua. “A team from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and other relevant ministries will conduct a field survey on Friday to look for a suitable location for the smelter’s construction, but the most important [thing] is that the smelter has to be built in Papua,” Antara news agency quoted Lukas saying Thursday in Biak, West Papua. The Governor stressed it was in Papua's interest to have the smelter constructed in the province, as it would generate more job opportunities and would boost the economy in the province, including tax revenue for the government. He added that the provincial government had identified two locations for the smelter; one in Biak Numfor regency, Papua and one in Bintuni regency,West Papua. After suspending its cooperation with state-owned PT Aneka Tambang and Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT), Freeport decided to establish the smelter in Pasuruan, East Java. The smelter’s establishment is obligatory, as the government no longer allows miners to export mineral concentrates overseas in an effort to create added-value for the country. With political pressure from the Papuan provincial government and citizens, the House of Representatives recently lobbied the government to demand Freeport abandon the plan in East Java and recommit to establishing the smelter in Papua. February 2, 2015 - The government has not decided on the future of PT Freeport Indonesia’s operations, although it understands investors need certainty. In July last year, the government and Freeport signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in which both sides agreed to complete the draft of an amendment to the miner’s contract of work (CoW) within six months, or January 2015. However, they failed to meet the January deadline and eventually agreed to extend it another six months. Despite the deadline extension, whether Freeport will continue operations in the country remains unclear. Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of US-based Freeport McMoran Inc., will see its contract expire in 2021 — around six years from now. The company has been trying to secure a contract extension so that it can ensure the payback period for its massive investment in the development of underground mining and a mandatory copper smelter in Indonesia. April 7, 2014 - Freeport McMoRan Copper’s joint venture partner Aneka Tambang (Antam), a diversified Indonesian miner, has said that the copper smelter which the two companies are building may not be ready by 2017. This is when the ban on Indonesian copper concentrate exports will come into effect and force Freeport McMoran to slash copper output drastically. This will cost the company billions of dollars in revenues. Freeport and Antam are right now conducting a feasibility study for the development of the copper smelter. Even if this study yields a favorable result, an Antam official says that construction cannot begin before 2015. It would take three years to build the smelter according to another official. There are two more smelters being constructed by PT Indosmelt and PT Nusantara Smelting which will take five years to build. The coal and minerals director general of Indonesia stated that if the smelters are not ready by 2017, concentrate exports will be withheld as the ban would come into effect at the designated time. A mining law enacted in 2009 prohibited export of unprocessed minerals from Indonesia after January 12, 2014. The purpose was to increase the value of commodity exports and encourage development of the local processing industry. On the designated date, this ban came into effect but the government used its discretionary powers to provide selective relaxation for some minerals and metals. The copper content in the ore exported has to be greater than 15%. Both Freeport and Newmont export copper concentrates with a higher percentage of the metal than the designated minimum and account for nearly 97% of Indonesia’s total copper exports. The problem mining companies like Freeport faced with the original ban is that there is a shortage of smelters in Indonesia even if they were ready to process all of their ore before exporting it. In addition, Freeport said that it ships its minerals under long-term contracts to international smelters and wishes to honor these contracts. It said that it entered into these contracts in the first place because its initial agreement with the Indonesian government allowed it to export concentrates without placing any restrictions. However, Freeport already processes about 40% of its ore mined in Indonesia at a smelter in East Java which is the only copper smelter in the country. This is why Freeport is working with Indonesian partners to construct new smelters. Newmont Mining, another major copper producer, currently smelts less than a quarter of its ore in Indonesia it produces at the Batu Hijau mine.

MTPD - Metric Tonne per Day STPD - Short Ton per Day
MTPA - Metric Tonne per Annum STPA - Short Ton per Annum
SA - Single Absorption
DA - Double Absorption

* Coordinates can be used to locate plant on Google Earth


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