ESDM minister accelerates Freeport landslide evacuation process
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Bahlil Lahadalia has revealed that as of Wednesday, September 17, 2025, the evacuation process for victims of the landslide at PT Freeport Indonesia's underground mine is still underway, although the weather has been a major obstacle in the search and rescue efforts. "All Freeport production activities have been halted, and the primary focus now is to search for the victims trapped in the landslide," Bahlil said on Wednesday. The evacuation process has been underway for 10 days, and Bahlil emphasized that the ministry is making every effort to accelerate the process.
"Our team is on the ground, working hard for acceleration," he said. He added that communication with Freeport's President Director Tony Wenas is ongoing to ensure all resources are being deployed to address the incident. "The head of the mining inspectorate and the director are also at the site to handle the issue directly," he added. The Ministry of ESDM and Freeport are working together to handle the issues arising from the landslide and to continue discussions on the government's shareholding and the copper export license.
As reported by CNN Indonesia, the wet mudslide incident at Freeport Indonesia's underground mine occurred on Monday night, September 8, 2025. The initial spill point came from the ore collapse area (Draw Point) 20-West, where the mud slid approximately 400 meters from Panel 23-East toward Panel 28-West and then split, impacting all infrastructure at the ore extraction level, except at Panel 13-West and Panel 28-34 East & West. Additionally, several other affected areas included the ore haulage level and the tunnel where the ore is collected (Chute Gallery).
Director General of Minerals and Coal at the ESDM ministry, Tri Winarno, said that the seven workers trapped consisted of five Indonesians, one Chilean, and one South African. The government has coordinated with the embassies of their respective countries regarding the progress of the search. "There are foreign nationals - one from Chile and one from South Africa, and the other five are Indonesian.
We've already communicated with the respective embassies," Tri said at the House of Representatives (DPR) building compound on Monday, September 15, 2025. According to Tri, due to the incident, the mining process at PTFI in the GBC area has been temporarily halted. This has also affected the company's total production.
"Production is definitely impacted. For now, production is halted only in GBC. But the drop might be around 30 percent," Tri said.
Government shares Regarding the proposed increase in government shares to 12 percent in Freeport, Bahlil mentioned that negotiations are still ongoing. "Initially, the negotiations mentioned 10 percent, but there is potential for it to exceed that amount," he said. He also assured that a meeting with Freeport McMoRan management will take place soon to discuss the continuation of the negotiations. "We will meet in the near future, and we hope the process can be concluded as soon as possible," he added.
In addition, Bahlil clarified that the ESDM ministry has not issued an export license for copper concentrate for Freeport so far. "As of now, no export license for copper concentrate has been issued," he said.