PT Smelting?s output slightly down in Q1
Wednesday, April 19 2006 - 05:48 AM WIB
New Orleans-based copper and gold miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc (FCX) reported Tuesday that PT Smelting produced 142.4 million pounds of cathodes for the first quarter of 2006, slightly down compared with 143.5 million pounds during the first quarter of 2005.
FCX said the smelter treated 234,400 metric tons of concentrates in the first quarter of 2006, compared with 226,400 metric tons in the year-ago period.
According to FCX, PT Smelting plans to expand its production capacity this year from 250,000 metric tons of copper metal per year to 270,000 metric tons of copper metal per year.
PT Smelting, located in Gresik of East Java, is the only copper smelter in Indonesia. FCX?s Indonesian unit PT Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI) is the supplier of copper concentrate to the smelter as well as a 25 percent owner.
Other owners are Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (60.5 percent), Mitsubishi Corporation (9.5 percent), and Nippon Mining & Metals Co (5 percent). (robert)