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Thursday, January 22, 2015

Freeport picks site for new Indonesian copper plant as deadline looms, (NYSE: FCX)

Freeport-McMoRan Inc said on Thursday it has picked Gresik, East Java, as the location for its planned new copper smelter in Indonesia, the latest move by the Arizona-based miner to comply with an export deal with the government last year. In a statement, the company's Indonesian subsidiary PT Freeport Indonesia said it chose Gresik due to the availability of infrastructure and as a result of a cooperation deal with state-owned fertilizer firm Petrokimia Gresik.Details of the agreement with Petrokimia were not given.The move comes after the country's mining minister warned on Tuesday the company could lose its permit to export copper concentrate from its massive mine in West Papua unless it could show progress in developing a new smelter this week.According to an agreement signed with the government in July last year, the country's largest copper producer has agreed to pay a $115 million "assurance bond" to develop the smelter by 2017.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. is a natural resource company with an industry portfolio of mineral assets, oil and natural gas resources and a production profile. Shares of FCX traded higher by 0.86% or $0.17/share to $20.02. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $17.85 and as high as $39.32. On average, 16419000 shares of FCX exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 19004650.



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