Indonesia Opens World's Largest Single-Line Copper Smelter as Freeport's Rp56 Trillion Gresik Plant Starts Up

Indonesia opened two copper smelters on a single day, September 23, 2024, as President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) inaugurated PT Freeport Indonesia's Rp56 trillion (about $3.7 billion) plant in Gresik, East Java — a copper refining facility with the largest single-line design in the world — and, hours earlier, PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara's Rp21 trillion smelter in West Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara. The twin launches mark a milestone in the country's drive to refine its mineral resources at home instead of exporting raw concentrate. https://en.antaranews.com/news/326963/president-jokowi-officiates-freeport-smelter-in-gresik-east-java

Gresik: seven years of negotiation, 30 months of construction

Jokowi called persuading mining companies to build smelters one of the hardest challenges of his 10-year presidency, saying he had negotiated with Chairman of the Board of PT Freeport Richard Adkerson since 2017. "The company needs to calculate the benefits of building the smelter," the president noted, acknowledging how tough the talks were around the Rp56 trillion investment (USD 1 ≈ Rp15,178). Land preparation was completed in 2018, the president performed the groundbreaking, and construction then took about 30 months.

At the ceremony Jokowi also instructed Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia to complete promptly the divestment of a 10 percent stake in PT Freeport Indonesia — one of the requirements for extending the company's special mining business permit (IUPK).

The largest single-line copper refinery and its supporting facilities

The Gresik plant is PT Freeport Indonesia's second smelter. Under its special mining business permit, the facility allows the company's mineral resources to be fully managed from upstream to downstream domestically, as part of the national program of mineral-industry downstreaming. The complex combines a copper smelting and refining plant with a precious-metal refining unit and a broad set of supporting infrastructure:

• a dedicated port and a concentrate warehouse;
• slag treatment and a steam dryer;
• an oxygen plant and sulfuric acid processing;
• a desalination unit;
• wastewater and surface water treatment installations.

Amman Mineral: 900,000 tons of concentrate a year in West Nusa Tenggara

The second facility inaugurated on September 23, 2024 belongs to PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara in West Sumbawa district. Built in about 14 months — described as one of the fastest mega-project developments in the world for a similar scale — the Rp21 trillion national strategic project uses double-flash smelting technology and occupies 272 hectares about 1.5 kilometers from Benete Port. Its annual processing capacity reaches 900,000 tons of copper concentrate from the Batu Hijau and Elang mines, plus 139,000 tons of silica flux. https://en.antaranews.com/news/326931/copper-smelter-to-boost-economic-growth-president-jokowi

Key outputs of the Amman smelter

1. 220,000 tons per year of LME Grade A copper cathode at 99.99 percent purity;
2. 830,000 tons per year of sulfuric acid at 98.50 percent purity;
3. 18 tons per year of gold bars (99.99 percent), 55 tons of silver bars (99.95 percent) and 77 tons of selenium (99.9 percent), refined from 987 tons of anode mud.

Amman Mineral President Commissioner Hilmi Panigoro said the plant should strengthen Indonesia's position in the global copper supply chain. https://en.antaranews.com/news/326879/president-inaugurates-copper-smelter-in-west-nusa-tenggara

From consumption to production

Jokowi framed the openings as a structural shift. Indonesia ranks among the world's top seven holders of copper reserves and, in his words, is entering "a new chapter in the downstreaming of the copper industry." With domestic consumption still accounting for 56 percent of gross domestic product, the smelters are meant to turn the economy from consumption toward production: "We also want the world's copper product needs to depend on Indonesia in the future." Exporting raw concentrate, the president argued, leaves the added value with countries that own smelting capacity.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia added that national entrepreneurs holding mining permits should also build smelting and refining facilities to strengthen the competitiveness of Indonesian mining manufacturing in the global arena.