VOL. 07  |  ISSUE 4  |  December 2024

Freeport Taps Its Global Expertise to Bring Smelter Complex Online

That is what Freeport-McMoRan sites around the world are providing workers at the new smelter complex in Manyar, Indonesia. About 90 employees with expertise in various specialties have been sent to the site to help with the commissioning and startup of the new facilities.Their main task is to train the people who will become the permanent employees of the Manyar complex, which includes, among other things, the smelter, acid plant and a precious metals refinery.
Workers who volunteered to be part of the Boots on the Ground program to make Manyar fully operational are rotating in and out of the facility every four weeks or so. Half will rotate to the site and stay four weeks, then rotate back to their regular jobsites and are replaced by the second shift of specialists.

Most come from sites in the United States, particularly Miami, Arizona, where the company’s only North America smelter is located. The Miami operation is providing 42 people to help train the Manyar crews. Those include hot metals specialists such as furnace operators, anode casters, boiler tenders and control room operators. Also helping with the startup are workers from the Miami acid plant, a chief environmental engineer and employees from the laboratory, metallurgy and process automation.

Leaders from Atlantic Copper in Spain were heavily involved in the initial scoping and design of the smelter project and continued providing in-depth expertise and across-the-board reviews through construction and startup, said Carlos Rich, Director of Marketing and Sales for FCX Concentrate. Eleven people also traveled from Manyar to Atlantic in May for hands-on training.

The successful completion of the smelter is the product of a collaboration that involved virtually every Freeport property and every aspect of the business, said H-D Garz, Executive Vice President-Corporate Planning and Business Strategy at PTFI, who is leading the team at the new smelter.
“We’ve utilized the whole team to provide us resources from within their normal operating and maintenance groups to help and provide on the ground supervision to guide our people through the steps of how to operate, what to operate, what to look out for and just to hold their hands and to support the startup process,” Garz said. “I do not know how a company our size could build such a large facility without the direct support that we’ve been able to get internally to the company.”

Worldwide Effort

International Team of Freeport Operators Helps Company Unlock a Pot of Gold

Slime might not sound very appealing. But it will be a pot of gold at the new PT Freeport Indonesia smelting and refining complex in Manyar when its new precious metals refinery (PMR) becomes fully operational.

The company has assembled an international team of specialists – from Freeport sites in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and multiple sites in the United States – who know how to squeeze the most value out of slime.

Slime is the sludge that sinks to the bottom of each cell during electrorefining to extract copper. Once the copper is plated out, what’s left is a soup with heavy concentrations of other valuable commodities including gold, silver, platinum and palladium as well as products such as lead, selenium and tellurium.

Freeport does not have another precious metals refinery. What it does have is facilities in Rotterdam and Fort Madison, Iowa, that process molybdenum using chemical extraction very similar to the method that will be used in the new Manyar facility.

Rotterdam is sending six people to assist in the startup of the PMR and help the new operators at Manyar learn the processes of chemical extraction, said Ricardo Devilee, Superintendent-Production in Rotterdam. Fort Madison and Sierrita, Arizona, each are sending one chemical plant operator to help in the training and initial operation of the new facility. In addition to helping bring the new plant online, the international team will help establish operating procedures and teach troubleshooting skills to Manyar workers so they can prevent or clear breakdowns and stoppages.

“They have massive experience in running the chemical plant,” Devilee said of the employees traveling from Rotterdam. “A chemical plant is a little bit different than a PMR plant, but the basics are the same. They work with a lot of the same equipment and chemicals, so they know how to prevent issues and to help the guys out when they see issues coming up.

“Those guys in Indonesia are very, very smart, but they are still missing some of the experience in the field. So, with our team and the new operators, we should have a perfect mix to safely start up the plant and build up the confidence among the new operators to run the process by themselves.”

Worldwide Effort

International Team of Freeport Operators Helps Company Unlock a Pot of Gold

Slime might not sound very appealing. But it will be a pot of gold at the new PT Freeport Indonesia smelting and refining complex in Manyar when its new precious metals refinery (PMR) becomes fully operational.

The company has assembled an international team of specialists – from Freeport sites in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and multiple sites in the United States – who know how to squeeze the most value out of slime.

Cristian Chafino (right) works with Juan Salazar, Supervisor-Smelter Operations in Miami, and other Boots on the Ground volunteers to help train workers at the new smelter complex in Manyar, Indonesia.

Slime is the sludge that sinks to the bottom of each cell during electrorefining to extract copper. Once the copper is plated out, what’s left is a soup with heavy concentrations of other valuable commodities including gold, silver, platinum and palladium as well as products such as lead, selenium and tellurium.

Freeport does not have another precious metals refinery. What it does have is facilities in Rotterdam and Fort Madison, Iowa, that process molybdenum using chemical extraction very similar to the method that will be used in the new Manyar facility.

Rotterdam is sending six people to assist in the startup of the PMR and help the new operators at Manyar learn the processes of chemical extraction, said Ricardo Devilee, Superintendent-Production in Rotterdam. Fort Madison and Sierrita, Arizona, each are sending one chemical plant operator to help in the training and initial operation of the new facility. In addition to helping bring the new plant online, the international team will help establish operating procedures and teach troubleshooting skills to Manyar workers so they can prevent or clear breakdowns and stoppages.

“They have massive experience in running the chemical plant,” Devilee said of the employees traveling from Rotterdam. “A chemical plant is a little bit different than a PMR plant, but the basics are the same. They work with a lot of the same equipment and chemicals, so they know how to prevent issues and to help the guys out when they see issues coming up.

“Those guys in Indonesia are very, very smart, but they are still missing some of the experience in the field. So, with our team and the new operators, we should have a perfect mix to safely start up the plant and build up the confidence among the new operators to run the process by themselves.”

Worldwide Effort

Bagdad Safety Professional Stresses Freeport Culture to Manyar Workers

Rachel Adams had an important career decision to make on whether to leave her job at the company’s Tyrone operations in New Mexico to become Health and Safety manager in Bagdad, Arizona.

But rather than mulling it over at home, Adams had to weigh the pros and cons of the offer from half a world away.
Adams was in Indonesia last July as part of Freeport’s Boots on the Ground initiative to bring expertise from its sites worldwide to help train workers at the new smelter complex in Manyar, Indonesia, and bring the facility online.

Spreading Freeport’s safety culture to workers at the new Manyar smelter complex are, from left, North American employees Zachary Scrivner, Manager, Corporate Project Engineering Safety, Rachel Adams and Heather Jewell, Superintendent, Health and Safety – Bagdad. Also shown is Christofer Purba, Health and Safety Representative – PTFI.

She hadn’t applied for the Bagdad position, but since she grew up there and had previously worked at the site, she seemed a natural if she was interested.

“In the middle of my first rotation is when they presented this opportunity to come to Bagdad,” Adams said. “It was kind of like ‘I’m in a whole other country, I don’t know where I’m at on these things and you want me to make these big life choices to move to Bagdad?’”

Adams said she was given plenty of time to decide, and after completing her monthlong commitment in Indonesia, accepted the job in Bagdad.

While at Manyar, she worked with the Indonesian safety team and others from the United States to instill in operations workers the need to adhere to Freeport’s safety culture and standards.

Language was one barrier. Another was getting the new workers into the habit of wearing the necessary personal protective equipment. Many of them were from nearby fishing villages and had never worked in a heavy industrial setting. So, they were not used to following the safety protocols and wearing PPE. Particularly challenging was getting people to keep their safety glasses on, especially in the steamy weather that constantly caused them to fog up.

“’Please put your glasses on’ were the first words I learned in Indonesian, and they are probably the words I said the most,” Adams said. “We definitely had to be creative on some of the things that we had to do to keep people safe because it’s not like you can go to Walmart and get a respirator or ear plugs. If we ran out of those things, it meant waiting for the next shipment or waiting for someone else from Boots on the Ground to come in and bring us more.”

Worldwide Effort

Java Native Gives the Personal Touch to Helping Train
New Manyar Workers at U.S. Sites

Luthfi Ardiansah’s trip from Indonesia to Safford, Arizona, to learn how to operate a cathode stripper got off to a bad start when he found himself alone and stranded in Phoenix with no place to stay and no way to pay for a hotel.

Fortunately, he did have Miko Sularso, Senior Communications Specialist in Freeport’s Corporate Communications Department.
Sularso is an Indonesian national based in Phoenix who has been host, driver, interpreter and tour guide for multiple groups of his fellow countrymen who have come to North America to hone the skills they will use to operate the company’s new smelter in Manyar, East Java, a province of Indonesia.

“Miko was my one hope,” said Ardiansah, who was hired in June 2023 as an equipment operator. “He was very helpful for me. Only Miko can help me. I don’t have anyone in the U.S., only Miko.”

The trouble began for Ardiansah when he and two other Manyar smelter workers were sent to Safford in October 2023 for training. They are part of the Boots on the Ground program that is tapping the expertise at Freeport sites around the world to help in the smelter startup.

However, there was a glitch getting his visa, so his arrival in Phoenix was delayed for two days.

Best laid plans …

Since he arrived late and wasn’t traveling with the others, there were problems with his hotel reservation. When it came time to pay, he didn’t have a credit card and his debit card would not work. He also was not an experienced traveler, this being his first international trip, and he was not fluent in English.

Sularso came to the rescue. He met Ardiansah at the airport and put the hotel bill on his own credit card. The next day Sularso drove Ardiansah to Miami, where he was met by site people there to resume his journey to Safford.
“I’m glad I was there,” Sularso said. “Luthfi was alone, and he didn’t really speak English. That would have been a nightmare. I’m glad I was able to provide some assistance.”

Sularso has been the host and problem solver for eight groups of Manyar workers who traveled to the company’s sites in the U.S. since that first contingent in October 2023. Their specialties range from hot metal workers to chemists and accountants. Several groups have gone to Safford and Miami, Arizona. Other training locations include the company’s operations in Colorado, El Paso, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona.

Manyar smelter employees enjoyed a mine tour in Bisbee and a trip to Tombstone during their recent training in Arizona. Pictured are (from left) Bambang Nurcahyono, Superintendent-Plant Utilities, Ahmad Setiawan, Operator-Control Room, Anzis Kamaludin, Supervisor-FSF-Dryer, WHB, Hot ESP, and Dauri Qaddafi, Operator Trainee-Control Room.

Sularso sees his role as making the trainees feel welcome and comfortable. Aside from helping ensure their work-related travels go smoothly, he also has taken them on social excursions to destinations such as Tombstone and Bisbee in Arizona.
Raised in central Java, Sularso has worked for the company since 2012 when he was hired at PT Freeport Indonesia through its graduate development program to handle expatriate documentation and visa processing. He transferred to PTFI’s Internal Communications department, writing stories for company publications.

Five years ago, Sularso went to college in the United States through a PTFI scholarship and started working in Freeport’s Corporate Communications department in Phoenix. He completed his master’s degree at Arizona State University in 2021 and continues to work in Corporate Communications in Phoenix.

Most of the Manyar workers he’s hosted are from eastern Java. While there are some linguistic differences from central Java where he grew up, Sularso said speaking in his native dialect and catching up on Indonesian culture has been a pleasure.
“It has been great to work with them, being able to regroup with Indonesians,” Sularso said. “It was nice to be able to speak Javanese, share some jokes. To be able to sing your favorite songs with someone that speaks the language, that was fun.”