Watch
After making a review of Smelter PT AMNT President Joko Widodo directly visited Java Integrated Industrial and Ports Estate (JIIPE) Gresik to see the progress of PT Freeport Indonesia’s smelter which has exceeded 72% and is expected to be all solved before May 2024. With a capacity of 1.7 million tons per year concentrated with copper output of 16,000 tonnes per year copper cathodes.
He stressed that smelter is the foundation policy for Indonesia to become a developed country in the future. The President said the number of smelter factories in Tanah Air would increase Indonesia’s competitiveness and shift economic dependence from the consumer sector to the production sector.
“Smelter is the foundation policy for us to become a developed country because from that focused on consumption, focused now on production,” President Jokowi said in his address to the media after conducting a review of the PT Freeport Indonesia smelter plant construction project, in Indonesia Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Gresik, East Java, on Tuesday, June 20, 2023.
The president also encouraged the output of the smelter plant to be integrated with the outcomes of other mining commodities spread across various areas in the country. Starting from the nickel in Sulawesi, the bauxite in Bintan and Kalimantan West, the tin in Bangka Belitung, to the copper foil in Gresik.
“So integrated into EV batteries, lithium batteries and it will be integrated again into electric vehicles,” he said.
The president also expects the construction of the smelter plant, which has already reached 72 percent, to be completed next year. “We expect everything to be done before May 2024,” the President’s said.
Also accompanied by the President in this review are the coordinating minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Minister of Investment / Head of BKPM Bahlil Lahadalia, Minister for Energy & Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif, Minister of State Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir, Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung, Governor of East Java province Khofifah Indar Parawansa, and president director of PT Freeport Indonesia President Tony Wenas.
Source: BPMI Setpres