Freeport Smelter Construction Likely Delayed

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The plan to move PT Freeport Indonesia's smelter location from East Java to Papua is expected to halt all development in the construction process. The absence of due diligence and the lack of supporting facilities in Papua are touted to become a major construction constraint.

"The delay could be at least one year," Marwan batubara, executive director of the Indonesian Resource Studies, told Tempo yesterday.

The government and the House of Representatives (DPR) are urging Freeport to move the construction of its smelter from Gresik, East Java to Papua. The request was made in a bid to optimize the value-added of the smelter for the people of Papua.

According to Marwan, Papua does not have the necessary infrastructure to support the smelter construction. The province, he said, is still short on electricity supply and the distance between the location and the supply materials is too far. If the government insists on moving the smelter project location, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources must be willing to be lax about the ban on export of raw minerals.

"If this is the way it's going to be, the smelter construction deadline would have to be extended from 2017," he said. 

URSULA FLORENE | ALI HIDAYAT | ROBBY IRFANY