JAKARTA, July 18 (Reuters) - Copper miner Freeport

Indonesia will process about 400,000 metric tons of copper

concentrate at its newly-launched $3.7 billion smelter from

August to December, its chief said in a statement.

As the race to transition to renewable energy spurred

growing demand for the metal, Freeport Indonesia last month

launched the smelter in Gresik, East Java with a capacity of 1.7

million metric tons of copper concentrate, output capacity

around 650,000 tons of copper cathode and 50 to 60 tons of gold.

Tony Wenas, Freeport Indonesia's chief executive, said the

smelter's processing capacity will increase gradually in August

and will reach its full capacity in December.

"After this smelter operates at full capacity, Freeport

Indonesia's smelter and PT Smelting will be able to process all

Freeport Indonesia's copper concentrate of 3 million tons per

year domestically," said Tony in a statement late on Wednesday,

referring to PT Smelting, the joint venture between Mitsubishi

Materials Corp and Freeport Indonesia, with a capacity of 1.3

million tons of copper concentrate.

Freeport Indonesia previously forecast 3.78 million tons of

copper concentrate output this year.

Earlier this month, Freeport Indonesia obtained an export

permit for the rest of the year from the government, its

spokesperson said, as there is excess copper concentrate

available for export while the new smelter is ramping up.

Freeport Indonesia is majority owned by the Indonesian

government but operated by U.S. mining giant Freeport McMoran ( FCX )

.

Indonesia banned exports of all raw minerals from June 2023,

but gave Freeport Indonesia and rival miner Amman Mineral

Internasional dispensation until May 31, 2024, to

allow them to finish the construction of their smelters.