REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - A two-day blockade preventing access to the Grasberg open-pit copper mine operated by the Indonesian unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc ended on Thursday after a meeting with workers, the company said, with no impact to copper concentrate shipments.

"After an open discussion on operational safety with representatives of workers, access in and out of the Grasberg Open Pit Mine reopened at 17:15 Eastern Indonesia Time," Freeport said in a statement late on Thursday.

Earlier, a mining ministry official told Reuters that mining activities at the open-pit, which accounts for more than half of the facility's total output, would remain suspended until Tuesday, while the government carried out an investigation of the death of four workers at the mine last Saturday.

Protesters blocked access to the open-pit mine in Indonesia's Papua province on Wednesday, demanding safety improvements and for management to be held accountable for recent fatal incidents at the mine.

A spokeswoman for the company contacted on Friday said that copper concentrate shipments have not been affected by the investigation or the blockade.

"Operations at the (open pit) Grasberg Mine are temporarily partly stopped until some recommendations to prevent re-occurrence are implemented," Freeport Indonesia Corporate Communications VP Daisy Primayanti told Reuters via email.

Under normal conditions, the Grasberg open pit produces around 140,000 tonnes of copper ore per day and while the underground mine puts out about 80,000 tonnes.

Thirty-five people died at the remote Papua complex last year, according to Freeport's 2013 annual report, including 28 who died when a tunnel collapsed. A representative of the Freeport Workers union contacted on Friday said the union was still in a closed meeting with Freeport management. He did not confirm or deny that the blockade had ended.

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