JAKARTA, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Freeport Indonesia's holding

company MIND ID said on Wednesday it was aiming to get the

copper miner's new Manyar smelter in East Java province repaired

within six months after the facility was damaged in a fire.

Freeport Indonesia halted copper cathode output at the

smelter after a fire at its gas cleaning unit in October.

Long production delays at the Manyar smelter, with an output

capacity of 480,000 metric tons of copper cathode a year, were

already narrowing an expected 2025 surplus of the metal and

supporting prices.

"We are hoping for your support," Hendi Prio Santoso, chief

executive of Mining Industry Indonesia (MIND ID), told a

parliamentary hearing. MIND ID holds a 51.2% share of Freeport

Indonesia.

"Hopefully in less than six months it will operate

normally," he said.

The $3.7 billion Manyar copper smelter was completed in June

and started output in September. However, production was delayed

until November by a steam and water leak.

Operational issues at the smelter prompted Freeport to ask

the Indonesian government to extend its copper concentrate

export licence, which expires at the end of 2024, mining

minister Bahlil Lahadalia told an industry summit on Wednesday.

He said the government had not decided whether to approve

the request.

Sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters after the

fire that U.S. mining company Freeport McMoRan ( FCX ), which

operates Freeport Indonesia's mine and smelter, would postpone

sales of refined copper from Indonesia until the second quarter

of 2025.