PHOENIX (Yosefardi) – Freeport-McMoRan Inc. said its unit PT Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI) targets to sell approximate 0.7 billion pounds of copper and 1.25 million ounces of gold for the year 2014.
In 2013, it sold 0.9 billion pounds of copper and 1.1 million ounces of gold. These estimates assume resumption of exports from PT-FI beginning in August 2014.
To the extent PT-FI is unable to resume exports in August 2014, this will result in a deferral of approximately 50 million pounds of copper and 80 thousand ounces of gold per month.
Upon a favorable resolution of the restrictions on exports matter, sales from Indonesia mining are expected to increase through 2016 as PT-FI gains access to higher grade ore.
PT-FI’s second-quarter 2014 sales reached 117 million pounds of copper and 135 thousand ounces of gold, lower than second-quarter 2013 sales of 158 million pounds of copper and 151 thousand ounces of gold.
The lower sales was due to lower milling rates as a result of the continued restrictions on concentrate exports from Indonesia, which resulted in the deferral of approximately 150 million pounds of copper and 240 thousand ounces of gold in second-quarter 2014 and 275 million pounds of copper and 380 thousand ounces of gold for the first six months of 2014.
PT-FI has several projects in progress in the Grasberg minerals district related to the development of large-scale, long-lived, high-grade underground ore bodies.
In aggregate, these underground ore bodies are expected to ramp up over several years to process approximately 240,000 metric tons of ore per day following the transition from the Grasberg open pit, currently anticipated to occur in 2017.
Development of the Grasberg Block Cave and Deep Mill Level Zone (DMLZ) underground mines is advancing to enable DMLZ to commence production in 2015 and the Grasberg Block Cave mine to commence production in 2017.
Over the next five years, estimated aggregate capital spending on these projects is currently expected to average $0.9 billion per year ($0.7 billion per year net to PT-FI).