Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) experienced a failure at their 90.6% owned subsidiary PT Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI) where about 75,000 tonnes of material were affected at the Grasberg open pit.  The incident is not expected to have a significant impact on PT-FI’s long-term mine plans.

PT-FI’s mining and milling activities are continuing normally but access to the high grade section of “7 South” will be restricted until remediation activities are completed and safe access to this mining area can be assured. PT-FI expects to complete remediation of the area and resume mining in the high grade “7 South” section in October 2008. In the interim, PT-FI is mining ore from the DOZ underground mine and lower grade sections of the Grasberg open pit. As a result of the delayed access to the high grade material, a portion of the metal expected to be mined in the second half of 2008 will be deferred to future periods. Initial estimates indicate approximately 150 million pounds of copper (PT-FI’s share, net of joint venture interest, 90 million pounds) and 200,000 ounces of gold (PT-FI’s share 200,000 ounces) previously expected to be mined in 2008 will be deferred to future periods.

Read the complete article here.

FCX originally expected the sale of 4.03 billion pounds of copper for 2008 and are currently 1.6% below previous estimates.

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