TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Clementino Lamury, Vice President Legal of Freeport Indonesia, said that the company's smelter construction in Gresik, East Java, will begin at the end of July 2016. Clementino said that the smelter would take at least two years to be constructed although the government has set a target for it to be completed in 2017.

"The progress has reached 11.5 percent, currently at the reward based engineering design [phase]. Only part of Petrokimia Gresik land has been reclaimed. And we have exposed the amdal [environmental impact analysis]," Clementino said during a hearing at the House of Representatives on Wednesday, January 20, 2016.

Director General of Mineral and Coal Bambang Gatot confirmed Clementino’s statement, saying that Freeport's smelter construction has passed the engineering procurement phase and budget absorption phase. Based on the progress, Gatot restated, Freeport's smelter construction has reached 11.5 percent.

Obligation to construct smelter as part of the increasing added-value program initiated by the government is regulated in Law No. 4/2009 on Mineral and Coal. Implementation of the program is regulated further in Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry Regulation No. 1/2014 on Increasing Mineral Added-Value Through Domestic Mineral Processing and Refining.

ALI HIDAYAT