PT Honay Ajkwa Lorentz announced plans to build a cement and ceramic factory with an investment of IDR 3.1 trillion in Timika, Central Papua. This factory will utilize tailings or residual mining materials from PT Freeport Indonesia as the main raw material, with a profit-sharing cooperation scheme. President Director of PT Honay Ajkwa Lorentz, Fenty Widya Wati,expressed that this step was taken to answer the needs of the Papua region which has so far received minimal attention from industry due to limited infrastructure. This project will begin with groundbreaking in the near future and is projected to operate in 2027. As many as 300 initial job opportunities will be available, with a workforce requirement of 600-900 people later. The majority of the workers recruited will come from local areas, especially for raw material transshipment activities and infrastructure development. Although currently domestic cement consumption in Indonesia only reaches 65.5 million tons per year from a total production capacity of 119.9 million tons, Fenty is optimistic that this factory will not be affected by oversupply conditions.
This factory is designed to supply cement needs in Eastern Indonesia, especially Papua and Papua New Guinea. Papua needs around 31 million tons of cement per year, while Papua New Guinea needs 20 million tons per year. In the next five years, Fenty expressed that PT Honay will focus on the local market in Papua and its surroundings to support infrastructure development according to the government's vision. This factory will produce up to 21.6 million tons of cement per year, with 84% of production focused on local needs. This factory utilizes PT Freeport's tailings as the main raw material to reduce production costs while supporting sustainable waste management. The company committed to empowering local communities with a target of 80 % of the workforce from Papua. And then it wants to ensure that the economic benefits of this factory are felt directly by the local community.
