Indonesia Freeport has begun construction of a 42 trillion rupiah (3 billion U.S. dollars) copper smelter and precious metal refinery in East Java, Indonesia. Indonesian President Joko Widodo attended the groundbreaking ceremony held at the Java Integrated Industrial and Port Village (JIIPE) in Gresik.

Freeport Indonesia is a joint venture between the American mining company Freeport-McMoRan and the Indonesian government. The country’s mining industry is represented by MIND ID. The smelter can produce 1.7 million tons of copper concentrate annually and is known as the world's largest single-line smelter. The new smelter covers an area of 100 hectares and will produce copper pipes and copper wires.

President Widodo said that the construction of domestic smelters will boost downstream industries. In addition, he stated that the existence of the Freeport Indonesia smelter located in the Gresik Special Economic Zone may attract the appeal of other industries.

Earlier in 2021, Freeport-McMoRan was seeking a deal with Chinese steel and nickel company Qingshan to cooperate with it in the c copper smelter project. However, the transaction failed to materialize because the two parties failed to reach an agreement. The smelter will also be used to manufacture other copper products, which can be used as components for the manufacture of lithium batteries. This is expected to help the Indonesian government realize its vision of creating an electric vehicle (EV) supply chain in the country.

In July 2021, Freeport Indonesia has awarded Chiyoda International Indonesia the engineering, procurement and construction contract related to the copper smelter complex. At about the same time, Metso Outotec was awarded an engineering and technical contract related to the complex. The Finnish company also signed an agreement to provide its Metso Outotec flash smelting, flash conversion and Lurec technologies. Keywords: international engineering news, foreign engineering project information

The new plant will be equipped with smelting and reforming furnaces, electrolytic refineries, wastewater treatment plants, sulfuric acid plants and auxiliary equipment. It will produce copper cathodes using concentrates provided by the Grasberg mine in Freeport Indonesia in Papua Province, Indonesia. The smelter is expected to be commissioned in 2024.Editor/Baohongying