Freeport McMoRan Inc’s Grasberg copper mine in Indonesia, the world’s second-largest for the metal by capacity, yesterday reopened after a worker roadblock stopped production for five days and helped push the metal to a two-month high.
Access to the site, located in the mountains in Papua Province in eastern Indonesia, was restored this morning and normal operations are resuming, PT Freeport Indonesia spokeswoman Daisy Primayanti said in a telephone interview.
The roadblock has been cleared, PT Freeport Indonesia workers’ union spokesman Juli Parorrongan said.
“The union has said to the workers that they should go back to work,” Parorrongan said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Grasberg has been plagued by labor strife in recent years. Workers seeking higher wages held a strike in 2011 and the mine was closed for months following a tunnel collapse in 2013.
The protesters, who the union said numbered about 100 on Friday, had been demanding bonuses as an incentive for not taking part in a work stoppage last year. Shipments of concentrates from stockpiles continued during the closure.
Copper for delivery in three months rose 3.3 percent to US$6,045 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange on Friday, following a 3.3 percent advance the day before. The metal touched US$6,082.5 on Friday, the highest since Jan. 12.
Freeport Indonesia did not reach an agreement with the workers on their demands and dialog is continuing, Primayanti said.
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