The Grasberg copper mine is expected to cut production by 20-300000 metal tons next year

Published: Aug 7, 2018 16:42

SMM8 7: recently, the world's second-largest copper producer Grasberg expects copper production to decline next year, mainly due to the transformation of the mine. The current situation at Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, is also unclear.

David Lilly (David Lilley), managing director of (Drakewood Capital Management) at Drexwood Capital Management, said, "the copper market seems to have been challenged by all sorts of challenges in any way," said David Lilly, managing director of Drexwood Capital Management. Including politics, labor disputes, underinvestment, ore grade depletion and so on. But investors remain confident about the future.

The decline in Grasberg output has been going on for a long time. The mine, located at high altitude between the highest mountains in Indonesia's remote Papua province, is one of the richest deposits in the world, mining billions of dollars worth of copper and gold over the past 30 years.

But Freeport said on July 25 that technical challenges made it likely that Grasnerg would not start producing copper until 2019, meaning that total copper production in Indonesia would "significantly decline" in 2019 and 2020.

Freeport spokesman Eric Kinneberg said in an email that MLZ's underground deep mining plan was the main cause of the decline in Freeport production, but would not have a substantial impact for five years. Kinneberg also said Freeport expects Glasberg to produce about £5.7 billion (2.6 million tonnes) between 2018 and 2022. Under the current arrangement, £5.3 billion will be donated to PT-FI, an Indonesian subsidiary, to Rio Tinto.

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The Grasberg copper mine is expected to cut production by 20-300000 metal tons next year - Shanghai Metals Market (SMM)