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Freeport Indonesia raises output target, waits for new export permit

Copper miner Freeport Indonesia has raised its output guidance for the year as it waits for an extension of its copper concentrate export permit that the government has actually assured, the business's deputy chief executive told parliament on Monday.

Its copper concentrate output target this year was lifted to 3.78 million metric loads, assuming the export license extension is authorized, from a preliminary 2.84 million heaps, the deputy CEO Jenpino Ngabdi said.

The business, majority owned by the Indonesian government however run by U.S. miner Freeport-McMoran, likewise raised its 2024 refined copper output target to 1.73 billion pounds, from 1.42 billion pounds formerly, he included.

Freeport Indonesia's last export authorization was valid till May 31 and its brand-new targets should be approved by the mining ministry.

Indonesia prohibited shipments of all raw minerals from June 2023, but Freeport Indonesia and rival copper miner Amman Mineral Internasional were offered a year-long dispensation to allow them to finish the building of their copper smelters.

The federal government has actually guaranteed to extend the dispensation until completion of 2024 so that the business can continue to export before their smelters reach full capability, however with additional levies on deliveries.

The policy for the brand-new levies was not publicly available as of Monday morning.

We are targeting functional start of the JIIPE smelter in early June with the commissioning of the furnace smelter, Jenpino said, describing the Java Integrated Industrial and Ports Estate smelter in East Java. The very first copper cathode production is anticipated in August with a feed rate for concentrate of 50%, he included.

Freeport Indonesia produced 3.45 million metric lots of copper concentrate in 2023 while its refined copper output last year reached 1.68 billion pounds.

(source: Reuters)