Indonesian President Joko Widodo recently attended a groundbreaking ceremony for a copper smelter belonging to gold and copper mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia in Gresik town, East Java.

The smelter is built on an area of 103-hectare in the Manyar Special Economic Zone at a cost of 3 billion USD, according to the Government data. It will have the world’s biggest capacity, with 1.7 million tonnes of copper and 35 tonnes of gold each year.

The Indonesian Government now has a 51-percent stake in PT Freeport Indonesia. The construction stage alone is expected to create 40,000 jobs for local people, Widodo said.

Minister of State-Owned Enterprises Erick Thohir said PT Freeport Indonesia’s revenue this year is estimated to more than double from 50 trillion rupiah last year.

Indonesia has the seventh biggest copper reserves in the world after Chile, Australia, Peru, Russia, Mexico, and the US.

Source: VNA