Copper smelter in East Java operates above design capacity
Thursday, April 19 2001 - 04:30 AM WIB
The country's sole copper smelter in Gresik, East Java, which is partly owned by copper and gold mining company PT Freeport Indonesia (FI), had to operate at slightly above its full design capacity of 200,000 metric tons of copper per year in the first quarter of the year following an increase in processing order.
Concentrate treated at the smelter during the first quarter of the year totaled 161,700 metric tons, a 37 percent increase compared to the amounts treated in the year-ago period when operations were still ramping up, American mining giant Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold, which owns FI, said in a statement.
The smelter belongs by PT Smelting, which is 25 percent owned by FI, 60.5 percent by Japan's Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, 9.5 percent by Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation, and 5 percent by Japan's Nippon Mining and Metals Co. Ltd.
"FI currently provides 100 percent of PT Smelting's concentrate requirements," the company said.
The company said PT Smelter's anode production increased by nearly 50 percent in the first quarter of the year, while its cathodes production increased by over 60 percent when compared to the year-ago period. This results in a 65 percent increase in the smelter's cathode sales in the 2001 first quarter over the 2000 first quarter.
The higher production levels in 2001 benefited PT Smelting's cathode cash production costs per pound of copper, which decrease to 11 US cents in the 2001 quarter, compared with 12 cents in the 2000 quarter. (Bodega)