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PT Smelting to Process 1.1 Million Tons of Copper Concentrate this Year

SharePT Smelting to process 1.1 million tons of copper concentrate this year. Copper refining company PT Smelting (PTS) plans to produce 291,000...

Written by Erwin Prasetyo · 1 min read >
PT Smelting

PT Smelting to process 1.1 million tons of copper concentrate this year. Copper refining company PT Smelting (PTS) plans to produce 291,000 tons of copper cathodes this year, a 21 percent increase from last year’s 242,000 tons.

PT Smelting
Copper refining company PT Smelting president director Hiroshi Kondo (second left) talks to the press about the company’s targets in 2019. The company aims to produce 291,000 tons of copper cathodes this year.  PT Smelting to process 1.1 million tons of copper concentrate this year (JP/Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman)

Copper cathode is used mainly by the tubing, wire and cable industry.

PTS president director Hiroshi Kondo said on Thursday that the firm was committed to processing 1.1 million tons of copper concentrate this year.

“The 1.1 million tons of copper concentrate will be processed to become 291,000 tons of cathodes, 1.04 million tons of sulfuric acid, 850,000 tons of copper slag, 31,000 tons of gypsum and 2,000 tons of anode slime,” he said.

In 2019, PTS is to receive the 1.1 million tons of copper concentrate from two of its suppliers, namely gold and copper mining corporation PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), which holds a 25 percent stake in PTS, and PT Amman Mineral.

PTFI is to supply 1 million tons of the copper concentrate, which is the same amount as last year, to PT Smelting, while the remainder is to come from Amman Mineral.

PTS said that PTFI would supply the 1 million tons of copper concentrate even though the mining giant had reduced its copper concentrate production by 42 percent this year to 1.2 million tons from 2.1 million tons last year.

The company’s exports are projected to decline to 200,000 tons this year from 1.2 million tons last year because of the lower production.

On the other hand, this year Amman increased its copper concentrate supply to PTS to about 100,000 tons from only 20,000 tons last year because of rising demand from the latter, Amman president director Rachmat Makassau said on Tuesday.

Amman’s export of copper concentrate is to also decline this year to less than 336,000 tons, which was the amount set in its 2019 work and budget plan.  PT Smelting to process 1.1 million tons of copper concentrate this year (Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman, The Jakarta Post)

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