•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., the largest publicly traded copper producer, will cooperate with the Indonesian government as it reviews the company’s contract to operate the Grasberg mine.

“We believe our contract is fair to all parties and results in substantial contributions to the government,” Phoenix-based Freeport said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. “We will work cooperatively with the government to complete this review and to seek extension of the contract beyond 2021.”

Grasberg, which accounted for 19 percent of the company’s revenue last year, contains the world’s largest recoverable copper reserve, according to Freeport. Production was cut in 2011 because of a three-month strike that ended in December.

Freeport said today its so-called contract of work can only be modified by mutual agreement between the government and the company. It also said the government established an evaluation team in January to review “all contracts.”

Eric Kinneberg, a Freeport spokesman, declined to comment further.

The Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said yesterday the company’s local unit, PT Freeport Indonesia, agreed to renegotiate the contract of work.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik and Freeport Indonesia President Director Rozik B. Soetjipto met in Jakarta yesterday to discuss the contract renegotiation, the Ministry said in an e-mailed statement.

Newmont Mining, the world’s second-largest gold producer by sales, operates the Batu Hijau mine in Indonesia under a 1986 contract of work. Omar Jabara, a spokesman for Greenwood, Colorado-based Newmont, didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.

Barrick Gold Corp. is the world’s largest gold producer.

Bloomberg