TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – President Director of PT Freeport Indonesia Tony Wenas revealed that the project development smelter copper in Gresik, East Java has the potential to cost the company up to US $ 10 billion.
Tony said that the loss was due to income from treatment charge and refining charge (TCRC) obtained are not in accordance with the economics of the project.
Over the past 20 years or so, the TCRC costs fully controlled by the international market for copper concentrate have been in the range of US $ 0.2 – US $ 0.24 per year. pound, even down to US $ 0.18 per pound in March 2020.
“It is a loss, if you say profit is misleading. If we build a new copper smelter it will cost US $ 3 billion with a capacity of that size. For that, the TCRC must reach US $ 0.60, meanwhile for smelters in other places it will be US $ 0.20. So, there is spread US $ 0.40 will be borne by PTFI and that is US $ 300 million per year. For 20 years, it is US $ 6 billion plus the construction of a smelter of US $ 3 billion, it will be almost US $ 10 billion, “Tony said in a webinar, Friday, September 4, 2020.
According to him, the one who suffered the most from this expense was PTFI and other PTFI shareholders, namely Inalum. However, PTFI remains committed to continuing the construction of the smelter project in accordance with the provisions of the PTFI special mining business license (IUPK).
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