Freeport open pit mine in Indonesia to resume production on Thursday

By Bambang Atmaja

Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc's mine in Papua will restart production on Thursday as the mine has terminated production since May 15 after the incident that killed 28 people, President Director of PT Freeport Indonesia Rozik B Sotjipto said here on Wednesday.

Rozik said that the resumption would be gradual and would reach full capacity of 140,000 tons ores per day within 6 days.

"Open pit mine restart production "tomorrow," he said when asked when the open pit mine will restart operation.

"May be it will reach capacity of 140,000 ton ores per day in the next 6 days," he sat at Le Meridien Hotel.

But, for the underground mines, they would resume production after the investigation on the safety would be completed, it would be shorten than the total investigation of the cause of the accident, in which the energy ministry said it would take one or two months.

Editing by Adianto P. Simamora