November 24, 2025 | 04:58 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - PT Freeport Indonesia's (PTFI) production this year has significantly decreased due to a wet material landslide at the Grasberg Block Caving underground mine. However, the increase in copper and gold prices ensured that the company's revenue increased beyond the initial plan.
PTFI President Director Tony Wenas stated that the current total production is approximately 70,000 tons of ore per day, 30 percent of the normal capacity of 210,000 tons per day.
"The incident on September 8 forced us to stop operations for almost 50 days to focus on finding the seven trapped workers," said Tony in a meeting with the House of Commission VI on Monday, November 24, 2025.
Operations could only resume on October 28 after obtaining permission from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the Mining Inspector. However, only two mines have resumed operations: DMLZ, which has a capacity of 60,000 tons of ore daily, and Big Gossan, which has a capacity of about 10,000 tons. The main supporting mine, Grasberg Block Caving, remains non-operational.
Despite a 30 percent decrease in copper production and a 50 percent drop in gold compared to the plan, Tony stated that the surge in commodity prices actually supported Freeport's revenue. In the 2025 RKAB (Work Plan and Budget), the assumed copper price was US$3.75 per pound. Currently, the price has reached US$4.46 per pound.
"With this price increase, copper revenue can still grow 19 percent above the plan, even though the production is only 70 percent," said Tony. The price of gold is also above the projected US$1,900 per troy ounce, thereby strengthening the revenue.
Tony projected the company's revenue to reach US$8.51 billion by the end of 2025 (around Rp142 trillion). This figure is equivalent to 82 percent of the RKAB target of US$10.4 billion. "Despite the sharp decrease in production, revenue only dropped 18 percent from the plan," said Tony.
He explained that operational performance was also hindered by a fire incident at one of the smelter facilities in October 2024. The smelter had to stop operating to prevent sulfur dioxide emissions that would pollute the environment, and only recovered in May 2025.
Overall, by the end of this year, Freeport estimates that copper production will reach 70 percent of the target (about 537,000 tons out of the planned 770,000 tons). Then, gold production will reach 50 percent of the target (about 33-34 tons out of the planned 67 tons).
"We are accelerating production recovery, but the safety of the workers remains a top priority," said Tony.
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