PTFI Employees Gain Expertise as They Fire Up New Smelter in Manyar

June 19, 2024 - It is not just the buildings and equipment that are being put to the test during the commissioning of PT Freeport Indonesia’s smelter in Manyar. The people doing the work are being tested themselves.

Aside from being a massive construction project, the smelter and related components will require almost 800 employees to keep it going once it’s fully operational. Those people need to be recruited, hired, trained and equipped with everything from protective equipment to radios. So far, about 700 have been hired.

The warehouses and repair shops where they work must be stocked. Supply chains need to be worked out. Computer networks have to be built. Protocols and procedures to protect workers, the environment and relations with nearby communities need to be established. Arrangements have to be made to get copper concentrate to the site and finished metals sold and shipped to customers.

Coordinating all that is the job of the operational readiness team, which is separate but closely integrated with the commissioning group responsible for helping ensure the buildings and equipment are constructed to specifications and working properly.

“These groups are working together to minimize boundaries in anticipation of the seamless transition from the commissioning function to sustainable operations function,” said H-D Garz, Executive Vice President-Corporate Planning and Business Strategy at PTFI. “It takes an army of different divisions to make this a successful campaign. It is also a marathon, more than a sprint, and we are now pushing to the finish line.”

Breaking down boundaries

Now in commissioning, the buildings and equipment are undergoing their final inspections and testing and are being phased into operation over the next several months. For the most part, the people doing that work are the ones who will become the permanent operations employees once the smelter is running. They are being supervised and supported by the smelter’s commissioning team, which is made up of both experienced Freeport employees and contractors.

As the local workers become more skilled in their jobs, the tasks and responsibility of operating the facility will be transitioned to them, said Scott Brack, Manager-Global Operational Readiness.

“It’s morphing into their operation,” Brack said of the workers at the PTFI smelter in Manyar. “The operations people will be in the field doing the jobs they will be doing when fully operational. They are just doing it under the guise of commissioning activity rather than operations. It isn’t going to be a single event when it transitions over. At different points throughout the year, the commissioning team will have less and less to do, and the plant will continue to run with the Manyar team at the helm.”

Freeport employees from other locations around the world also are being brought in on temporary assignment to assist with the transition from commissioning to long-term operation of the smelter complex, Brack said.

Building the workforce

Beyond the smelter itself, the complex at the PTFI smelter in Manyar includes other large facilities, including an acid plant, precious metals refinery, seawater desalination plant, and dozens of repair shops, warehouses, office buildings and other structures. They are supported by departments beyond the physical plants, such as environmental services, health and safety, procurement, security, finance and accounting, sales and marketing, tax, global supply chain, management information systems (MIS), and human resources. All of those facilities and functions needed to be staffed with people trained in their specific jobs.

Those teams are doing work now that will continue after the smelter is operational. For instance, the environmental team is going through the permits and setting up the monitoring equipment and protocols that will be part of the permanent operations.

“It gets very, very complicated very quickly,” Brack said. “The details matter because the details are what are going to make sure the future operation is successful. The folks are required to think across the entire spectrum, not only strategically but also tactically to make the business run every day.”

Photos (left to right): Aristya Marzuki (center) was hired last year as a Senior Process Engineer in the Precious Metals Refinery at PTFI’s new smelter complex. Pictured with Marzuki are Ramses Sinuraya (left) and Achmad Choilrul Fatichin, both Precious Metals Refinery Operators; Nurdin Febrian, Smelter Operator (left); Rahayu Pratiwi, Smelter Operator; Panggayuh Gumilar, Smelter Operator; and Johny Salim, Process Control Engineer, conduct anode testing at the smelter.