Freeport suspends Indonesian Grasberg mine operations following underground incident

Freeport-McMoRan announced on Tuesday that it temporarily halted the mining of Indonesia's Grasberg Mine after a large amount of wet materials blocked access to certain parts of its underground. This restricted evacuation routes for seven employees.

The company reported that the incident happened late Monday night at one of the five production blocks within the Grasberg Block Cave Underground Mine in Central Papua.

Freeport stated that the location of the seven employees is known, and they believe that they are safe. Rescue crews are clearing the area to allow for a quick and safe evacuation.

Bahlil lahadalia, Indonesian mining minister, announced on Tuesday that his team will go to the area and check it out. They will then give an update once they return.

Freeport owns Grasberg - one of the largest gold and silver mines in the world - and was building a smelter for it in Indonesia. A fire damaged the smelter last year, and it was shut down.

The London Metal Exchange's three-month copper fell 0.08% to $9,907 a metric ton at 0918 GMT.

Freeport Indonesia projected that its copper concentrator output would reach 2,964 million metric tonnes in 2025. Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina from Bengaluru, and Stefanno Sulaiman in Jakarta, with editing by Sonia Cheema and Kirdonovan.

(source: Reuters)