SMM6, 12 Feb: Riza Pratama, a spokesman for the Indonesian branch of Freeport-McMoRan Inc, said on Wednesday that the company plans to start building a copper smelter by mid-2020.

The smelter is scheduled to go into production later in 2023 with a capacity of 2 million tons.

In December, Freeport reached an agreement with the Indonesian government on the right to operate the Grasberg copper mine, agreeing to build a copper smelter in Indonesia within five years.

Meanwhile, Indonesian Freeport said on Wednesday that it planned to apply for additional export quotas, but did not disclose the exact amount.

At present, the company currently has a one-year export quota of 198282 wet tons of copper concentrate.

In the first quarter of this year, copper production at Freeport fell 18 per cent to 750 million pounds, the biggest drop in Indonesia, as a result of the Grasberg project. Net income also fell sharply, to just $31 million, compared with $692 million in the same period last year.

The company's Grasberg copper and gold mine in Indonesia is working on a project costing more than $15 billion to shift Grasberg mining from open to underground. "related news-Freeport copper production and profits fell sharply in the first quarter, dragged down by the Grasberg project

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