Freeport-McMoRan Plans To Build Papua's First Cement Plant

By Dorothy Kosich, Mineweb.com

Plans by PT Freeport Indonesia to develop Papua's first cement plant next year could help the remote province fulfill local construction demands, Indonesia Industry Minister said.

The US$150 million factory would be built near the city of Timika.

"The new factory would be built as part of the company's corporate social responsibility program to support infrastructure development in Papua," Industry Minister MS Hidayat said on Monday. Half of the factory's annual production capacity of five million tons would be sold on the local market and Freeport would use the remainder, the Jakarta Globe reported.

Freeport spokesman Mindau Pangaribuan told the Globe the project resulted from discussion between the company and the Papua provincial government. Mindau said Freeport's mine tailings would be used to make the cement.

Cement is now imported to Papua from other provinces. Freeport's giant Grasberg copper and gold mine is located in Papua.

The chairman of the Indonesian Cement Association ASI said the new factory could cut cement prices by half.

The Papua provincial government also announced it plans to build a 2,000-megawatt hydropower plant to meet electricity demand and to support infrastructure needs in the province. State utility company PT PLN plans to develop 18 power plants, including coal, hydro and micro-hydro plants to ease the province's dependence on diesel power.