Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – Freeport Indonesia in collaboration with Telkom Group will apply 5G Mining technology, which become the first in Southeast Asia, State-owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir said.

The technology, which is expected to be implemented in the next six months, is in line with the Industrial Revolution 4.0, the Minister of SOEs added at the groundbreaking for the construction of Freeport Indonesia’s smelter in the Gresik Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Gresik district, East Java province, on Tuesday (Oct. 12).

"The function of 5G is to maintain operational security because what is being done is included in the category of deep mining, so it is very important to protect the workforce," explained Erick, adding that 5G Mining will also improve integration connectivity by implementing a hyper connect network.

"There will be autonomous cars or autonomous trucks. We will maximize this preparation between Freeport and Telkom," he said.

The construction of the Freeport Indonesia smelter in the Gresik SEZ costs an investment value of up to 42 trillion rupiahs (some 2.9 billion dollars).

Erick pointed out that the refining facility aims to produce copper cathodes and purify precious metals to produce gold, silver, and others.

As much as 35 tons of gold per year is expected to be produced from the smelter, with the transaction valued at least 30 trillion rupiahs (some 2.1 billion dollars), he noted.

Around 40,000 workers are involved in the construction of the Freeport Indonesia smelter in the Gresik SEZ.

Reporting by Indonesia Window