Jokowi shakes his forehead when he talks about Freeport gold, why?

Jakarta –

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) raised his forehead when talking about gold produced by PT Freeport Indonesia. According to him, so far a lot of Freeport’s gold has been lost somewhere, this happened because for more than 50 years Freeport has been operating without any refinery or smelter. Jokowi hit his forehead when he spoke about this.

According to Jokowi, Freeport only works by using concentrate and then exporting it raw. There are different materials in the cover itself, from copper to gold. This means that if the concentrate is only exported raw, a lot of gold resources will be lost and not processed at home.

Well, Jokowi admitted that when he visited the Freeport mine he asked the workers how much gold could be transported in unprocessed concentrates in the country. He got the answer that it could reach 50 tons a year.

According to him, if 50 tons can be increased, Indonesia itself will profit. Just think of 50 tons of gold per year, if multiplied by 50 years of work and evaluated at the current gold price, the amount is indeed very large.

“Maybe because I often go down, how much gold is transported? About 40-50 tons every year. Just multiply 50 (tons) times 50 (years). Just add rupiah , women, how many grams are there,” said Jokowi in the Kompas 100 Leaders Forum broadcast live from IKN, East Kalimantan, Friday (11/10/2024).

“My estimate, just for fun, I asked down and down, it was fifty, fifty. That’s so much, I changed my lemes immediately,” said Jokowi and he taps on the roof twice.

Jokowi also asked a question that may surprise Tony Wenas, the President Director of Freeport Indonesia. While speaking, Jokowi suddenly asked Tony about the possible loss of gold due to close exports. Jokowi asked Tony, where did Freeport’s gold go in the last 50 years.

“My question is, where has the concentration been taken for more than 50 years? But not Mr. Tony,” Jokowi said, followed by laughter from the audience present.

Now, PT Freeport Indonesia has its own smelter or copper refining factory capable of processing 3 million tons of concentrate per year. In that way, Jokowi said that Indonesia will see the greatness of Freeport’s gold potential.

“Since there is no smelter, we cannot know, but now PTFI already has the capacity for that, you know, in a year, we will know because we will start production in January-December next year , you know, we do. growth in December next year, how many tons will we produce,” explained Jokowi.

Watch: Jokowi reveals additional 10% stake in Freeport still under negotiation

[Gambas:Video 20detik]

(hal/hns)