Govt to receive $327 million from Freeport
Tuesday, January 27 2004 - 01:46 AM WIB
In its working plans for 2003, the mining company initially targeted to give $318 million -- $263 million in taxes and $55 million in royalty -- to the government.
The higher-than-expected government?s revenue from the mining company is due to the surge in global gold and copper prices, which boosted the company?s income, a company document obtained by Bisnis indicated.
A Freeport executive said the company?s 2003 gold price realization was $366.60 per ounce. This was far higher than the 2002 price of $311.97 per ounce.
Copper price jumped to $0.82 per pound in 2003 in compared to $0.71 per pound in 2002.
The additional income would be a relief for Freeport after it suffered a major landslide at its Grasberg mine, Freeport said.
The landslide is hurting significantly the company?s performance, it said.
Grasberg is also widely regarded as the world's most profitable mine, with rich gold deposits helping to keep the cost of its copper mining down to 10 cents a pound, compared with more than 50 cents a pound for most other copper producers.
Freeport's problems in Indonesia began Oct. 9, 2003 when a massive landslide in the south wall of the Grasberg pit killed eight workers and buried most of the mine's high-grade ore deposits. Then, in early December, only days after the company received Indonesian government approval to resume full-scale operations, a second slide occurred in the same section of the mine.
PT Freeport Indonesia is an Indonesian unit of New Orleans-based world mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Coppers & Gold Inc.(*)