Badung. Freeport Indonesia’s copper and gold output has fallen to just 30 percent of capacity after a deadly underground landslide forced the suspension of all underground mining operations, according to estimates from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry (ESDM)

The halt comes as the company focuses on evacuation and recovery at the Grasberg Block Cave (GBC) in Papua, where seven miners were trapped following the Sept. 8 collapse of wet ore material. Two bodies were recovered on Saturday, while five workers, including two foreigners, remain missing.

Freeport’s records show the company produced an average of 208,356 tons of ore per day in 2024 across its three underground sites: Grasberg Block Cave, Deep Mill Level Zone (DMLZ), and Big Gossan. Of that, GBC contributed roughly 133,800 tons, or 64 percent of daily output, while DMLZ produced about 64,900 tons and Big Gossan around 8,000 tons.

“This is the most severe mining tragedy Indonesia has ever experienced,” Tri Winarno, ESDM’s director general of minerals and coal, said in Badung, Bali, on Monday. “Production has dropped to as low as 30 percent,” he added.

Freeport Indonesia President Director Tony Wenas said the company has halted all underground operations while emergency crews, assisted by heavy machinery, drilling equipment, and drones, work to clear unstable material and reestablish communications. The company is coordinating closely with government inspectors, state-owned mining holding MIND ID, and Freeport-McMoRan in the United States to speed up rescue and recovery efforts.

Grief spread across Central and East Java over the weekend as families buried the two workers confirmed dead in the disaster.

Irawan, 46, an electrician from Cilacap, Central Java, was laid to rest on Sunday in his hometown of Kalisabuk village. Relatives remembered him as a quiet but devout man, active in community life and dedicated to his wife and two daughters. “We accept this as the risk of working in mining,” said his brother, Sigit Pramono. Irawan last visited home in August before returning to Papua in early September, just days before the landslide struck.

In Ponorogo, East Java, hundreds gathered at dawn on Sunday to bid farewell to Wigih Hartono, 37, who also perished in the accident. His younger brother described him as cheerful and hardworking, recalling his early years doing odd jobs before joining Freeport in 2018. Hartono, who worked in the electrical division, is survived by his wife and two children, one of them still in junior high school.

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