PHOENIX (Yosefardi) – Freeport-McMoRan Inc. said its Indonesian operation, PT Freeport Indonesia, sold 346,000 ounces of gold in the second quarter of 2015, jumped 156% from 135 ounces in the same period of 2014.
While copper sales rose 67.5% to 196 million pounds, from 117 million in the second quarter of last year. Gold and copper sales growth primarily reflected higher operating and recovery rates, and higher ore grades for gold.
Freeport Indonesia expects ore grades to increase beginning in fourth-quarter 2015 through 2017 as high-grade sections of the Grasberg open pit are mined.
At the Grasberg mine, the sequencing of mining areas with varying ore grades causes fluctuations in quarterly and annual production of copper and gold. Sales from Indonesia mining are expected to approximate 860 million pounds of copper and 1.3 million ounces of gold for the year 2015, compared with 664 million pounds of copper and 1.2 million ounces of gold for the year 2014.