This ranking evaluates how Fortune 500 companies are deploying AI, and how technology leaders value those investments relative to industry peers.

Fortune AIQ 75

With a combined revenue of $21 trillion and $2.1 trillion in profits, the 2026 Fortune 500 is the definitive list of America's largest companies.

Fortune 500

Fortune AIQ 50

Almost $20 trillion in revenue—and a record-breaking $1.87 trillion in profits. Introducing the 2025 Fortune 500, the definitive list of the biggest companies in America.

Industries included in the sector are mining, oil and gas exploration and services, pipelines, refining, and utilities.

Fortune Sector Leaders: Energy

The Fortune 500, in its 70th year in 2024, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

Fortune collaborated with the Diligent Institute to rank the most innovative boards of directors among S&P 500.

Modern Board 2023-Freeport-McMoRan

The Phoenix-based mining company supplies about 9% of the world’s mined copper and is led by CEO and board chair Richard Adkerson. FCX has <a href="https://www.fcx.com/about/board-of-directors">12 members</a> on its board, including David Abney, former CEO of UPS; Lydia Kennard, CEO of KDG Construction Consulting; and John Stephens, former AT&amp;T CFO. In February, the company appointed its president, Kathleen Quirk, to the board. FCX has grappled with an ongoing <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/copper-miner-freeport-mcmoran-beats-profit-estimates-2023-04-21/">labor shortage</a> in the copper mining industry in recent months. Its metals are critical to support decarbonization efforts and the green energy transition. In its 2022<a href="https://www.fcx.com/sustainability"> sustainability report</a>—its 22nd to date—the company outlined its ESG performance, covering human rights, responsible supply-chain practices, and ethics, among other matters. There are five women members on its 12-person board.

Fortune Modern Board 25

The Fortune 500, in its 69th year in 2023, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

Industrials came out on top this year, with 22 companies featured on the list.

100 Fastest-Growing Companies

Just as it dominates our economy, Big Tech now dominates Fortune’s annual ranking of corporate reputation.

World's Most Admired Companies

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 68th running of the list.

After a year in which humanity leaned more heavily than ever on tech giants, see which companies topped Fortune's ranking of corporate reputation.

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 67th running of the list.

F500-2021-215-Freeport-McMoRan

The mining company is based out of the Freeport-McMoRan Center in Phoenix and mines for minerals including gold and copper.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 66th running of the list.

F500-2020-221-Freeport-McMoRan

The Phoenix-based mining company extracts copper, gold, and molybdenum from sites in North and South America and Indonesia. It closed one of its New Mexico mines in April when workers contracted the coronavirus; the company has since announced furloughs and cuts to executive compensation.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 65th running of the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 64th running of the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 63rd running of the list.

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2016 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 62nd running of the list.

Business insiders have spoken: Asked which companies they most admire, more than 4,100 executives, directors, and analysts chose these top 50 All-Stars.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 61st running of the list. Wal-Mart claims the top spot again. See who made the list.

Wal-Mart stayed on top as its sales crept closer to half-a-trillion dollars. Apple moved into the top five. And UnitedHealth Group continued its steady climb. 

Fortune Global 500

Sector

Industry

Industry Rank

Previous Industry Rank

Overall Score

Innovation

People Management

Use of Corporate Assets

Social Responsibility

Quality of Management

Financial Soundness

Long-Term Investment Value

Quality of Products/Services

Global Competitiveness

Fastest-growing Companies

Revenue 3 Yr Growth Rank

Revenue 3 Yr Annual Growth Rate

EPS 3 Yr Growth Rank

EPS 3 Yr Annual Growth Rate

Total Return 3 Yr Rank

Total Return 3 Yr Annual Rate

Beat S&P 500 3 Yr Return

Current Streak

Years on List

Key Financials (last Fiscal Year)

Revenues ($M)

Profits ($M)

Assets ($M)

Total Stockholder Equity ($M)

Profit Ratios

Profit as % of Revenues

Profits as % of Assets

Profits as % of Stockholder Equity

Earnings Per Share (last Fiscal Year)

Earnings Per Share ($)

EPS % Change (from prior fiscal year)

EPS % Change (5 year annual rate)

EPS % Change (10 year annual rate)

Total Return

Total Return to Investors (last year)

Total Return to Investors (5 year, annualized)

Total Return to Investors (10 year, annualized)

Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan was founded more than 100 years ago in Freeport, Texas, as a sulfur-mining company. The company merged in 1981 with McMoRan Oil and Gas as a fossil fuel and mining conglomerate under the Freeport-McMoRan name. In more recent years, the company has focused its business on metals mining, specifically with a goal of becoming the world leader in copper, which is growing in demand because of its use in renewable energy, electric vehicles, data centers, and more. With a global mining footprint throughout the Americas—from Arizona to Chile—and in Indonesia, Freeport also mines heavily in gold and molybdenum, which is used in steel and other alloys.

Q2 2026

Q1 2026

Q4 2025

Q3 2025

Q2 2025

Q1 2025

Q4 2024

Freeport-McMoRan (FCX): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

legacy

Freeport-McMoRan

freeport-mcmoran

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Freeport McMoran Second Quarter Conference Call. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. David Joint, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Freeport conference call. Earlier this morning, FCX reported its second quarter twenty twenty five operating and financial results. A copy of today's release with supplemental schedules and slides is available on our website, fcx.com. Today's conference call is being broadcast live on the Internet, and anyone may listen to the call by accessing our website homepage and clicking on the webcast link. In addition to analysts and investors, the financial press has been invited to listen to today's call.

A replay of the webcast will be available on our website later today. Before we begin our comments, we'd like to remind everyone that today's press release and certain of our comments on the call include non GAAP measures and forward looking statements, and actual results may differ materially. Please refer to the cautionary language included in our press release and slides and to the risk factors described in our SEC filings, all of which are available on our website. Also on the call with me today are Richard Actorson, Chairman of the Board Kathleen Quirk, President and Chief Executive Officer Marie Robertson, Executive Vice President and CFO and other senior members of our management team. Richard will make some opening remarks, Kathleen and Marie will review our slide materials, and then we'll open up the call for questions. Richard?

Thank you, David, and thank you all for joining us. Copper is currently in the spotlight, of course. COMEX prices are hitting all time highs. LME prices are strong. Uses are growing.

Electricity means copper, and the world is increasingly electric. This results in high demand and the industry continues to be challenged to find the supplies to meet this demand and future demand. Governments are focused on critical minerals, including copper. Our company is strongly positioned. One third of our copper is in The U.

S, roughly one third in Indonesia and one third in Peru and Chile. We are the dominant producer in The U. S, producing over 70% of the country's refined copper. We're fully integrated. We have substantial organic growth to U.

S. And we're committed to that growth. Freeport committed to its strategy to copper over twenty years ago. Our tagline has been foremost in copper and that's what we're striving to be. The startup for the Indonesian smelter is a big accomplishment.

Congratulations to Team Freeport. We will now be effectively fully integrated producer globally. We're pleased to see the trade agreement between Indonesia and United States and productive discussions with President Prabhu and President Trump. We convey to the Indonesian leaders negotiating the deal to note that Freeport, a widely held public company in The U. S.

With almost a sixty year history of operating in Indonesia is the operator of the world's second largest copper mine located there. Grasberg Operations And District is our cornerstone asset, second largest copper mine in the world. In this most recent quarter, we had a net credit for operating cost of $1 a pound. This asset has enabled us to create the modern Freeport. With the smelter nearing completion, we are progressing our discussions with the Indonesian government by extending our operating rights beyond 02/1941.

Doing so would create great value for FCX shareholders, but it also would be very positive for all stakeholders in the operation. With those comments, I'll turn the call over to Kathleen and Marie and to report on our quarter and our outlook.

Great. Thank you, Richard. And I'll cover the highlights of the second quarter starting on Page three. We generated strong margins and cash flows during the quarter and achieved significant milestones on several important initiatives. Our sales of copper and gold were better than forecast and net unit cash production costs during the quarter of $1.13 per pound were significantly improved from what we guided to and from last year's second quarter.

With an average quarter copper realization of over $4.5 per pound, which was about $0.20 per pound above the international benchmark pricing, we generated quarterly EBITDA of $3,200,000,000 and operating cash flows of $2,200,000,000 Our sales volumes exceeded production as we were successful in reducing inventories in Indonesia both at the mine site and newly commissioned precious metals refinery, which performed well during the second quarter. As we look at the balance of the year, we're well positioned for continued strong financial performance. Our sales of copper in the second half are expected to be nearly 10% higher than our first half volumes and gold sales after taking into account revisions to our Grasberg gold production, which we'll talk more about, are expected to be similar to the first half levels. The current premium on our U. S.

Copper sales, which recently tripled from second quarter levels, as additional margins and cash flows. And as we look ahead to 2026 and 2027, volume growth and lower costs set us up nicely to expand margins and cash flows as we go forward. We achieved a major milestone in the quarter with the startup of our new copper smelter in Indonesia, a project we've been working on for the past ten years. We started up about a month ahead of schedule and have progressed startup activities to the stage of producing our first cathodes, which we expect by the end of this month. We remain focused on ramping up to reach design capacity by the end of the year.

Another real exciting development during the quarter was the start of a field trial at our U. S. Morenci mine using an internally developed leach additive. Our team of scientists have been working on this for some time and we are progressing work on additional options which are showing very impressive lab results. There's more work to do, but we're making real progress.

Identifying the right additive combined with our precision leaching operating practices will be a big step toward reaching our objective of producing 800,000,000 per annum from this initiative. We continue to advance optionality in our organic growth pipeline and we're well positioned with our significant resources and experienced team and our strong financial position. We purchased 1,500,000 shares of stock during the second quarter, bringing our first half stock purchases to 2,900,000.0 shares at an average cost of $36.41 per share. And we continue to target 50% of excess cash flow for shareholder returns in line with our financial policy. Turning to the next slide on four, it's a summary of our 2025 priorities.

We've covered these on previous calls and these are the areas that are defining our everyday pursuit of value creation. First, execution, mastering the basics, and making everyday count are key objectives. We're focused on delivering our plans safely and efficiently and driving our costs lower particularly in The U. S. Scaling the leach opportunity is a major value driver for Freeport.

We continue to target a 40% increase in our run rate to achieve £300,000,000 by the end of the year on our path to £800,000,000 per annum. Delivering the smelters, a safe and efficient ramp up of the PTFI smelter is strategically important. It'll re derisk our plans and position us for extension of our long term operating rights in Indonesia. With the early start up, we're well on our way. We posted a video this morning of the progress on our on our website, and we hope you'll have the chance to review it.

We're very proud of what our team is accomplishing there. Innovation is an increasingly important value driver for our business. Our operating teams are embracing technologies and new tools to enable better productivity and cost performance. And we're continuing to build optionality in our growth portfolio. We have three major project opportunities being advanced in The Americas, which we'll talk more about.

Turning to copper markets on Slide five. Copper has been actively covered in the media recently with widespread recognition of the rising strategic importance of this essential metal and a broad use of applications. Market fundamentals remain positive underpinned by copper's increasing use in the global economy and is an important driver of electrification, global energy requirements and defense systems. Copper prices averaged $4.32 on the London Metals Exchange during the quarter and $4.72 on the U. S.

COMEX exchange. Following the July 8 U. S. Tariff announcement, U. S.

Prices rose significantly. While tariff policies have dominated headlines and resulted in rising inventories in The U. S, global exchange inventories remain at low levels, particularly in relation to consumption trends. Copper demand globally continues to benefit from the secular trends and major new investments in AI technology, power infrastructure, decarbonization and transportation. In The U.

S, demand continues to be supported by these secular drivers and we are seeing improving trends in Europe. China continues to be a major driver of copper demand and India represents an important growth market in the future. As we've talked about in the past, the fundamentals of the copper markets are highly attractive with the outlook for demand growth to outpace available supplies as we go forward. Here at Freeport, we're in a great position to increase volumes in the coming years to supply a world with growing requirements. Moving to Slide six, we talk about the regional premiums and the market differentials between The U.

S. Pricing benchmarks and international benchmarks. For background, the reference price for Freeport's copper sales contracts is based on geography. Our international sales are based on the London Metals Exchange price and our U. S.

Sales are based on The U. S. COMEX reference price. These two benchmarks have been closely correlated in the past, but as you can see, a differential emerged earlier this year after The U. S.

Opened the Section two thirty two investigation and the differential widened significantly earlier in July following The U. S. Announcement of a 50% tariff on copper imports with an expected implementation date on August 1. We're still waiting on additional details on implementation of the tariff announcement. The U.

S. Currently imports approximately half of its copper cathode requirements and the current domestic supply of cathodes, the rest of it are majority produced by Freeport. As indicated in the charts, as of yesterday's close, The U. S. Premium approximates $1.25 per pound or about 28% above the LME price.

This implies an approximate $1,700,000,000 annual financial benefit on Freeport's U. S. Sales. Longer range, the differential will be determined by market factors, including how the tariff structure is applied to various copper products, available domestic supplies and requirements for imported copper and other factors. We're actively working to boost domestic supplies of copper with a special emphasis on growing our refined production in a cost effective manner through our innovative leach initiative and we're focused on supporting the growing requirement for our U.

S. Customer base. RePort is an important American copper producer and is by far the largest contributor to The U. S. Copper market with an established and successful franchise dating to the late 1800s.

As America's copper champion, we appreciate the administration's recognition of copper as a critical mineral and the efforts underway by the US government to boost domestic production. Our operations in The US supply approximately 70% of the refined copper produced here. Our operations in The US are fully integrated with mines and smelting and refining facilities and innovative leach processes that efficiently produce refined cathode. About 60% of our U. S.

Production is sourced through leaching processes and the balance through our smelter. We employ a large workforce in The U. S. And importantly, we've earned the trust of communities in the Southwest U. S.

Where we operate and with our U. S. Copper customers. In talking about our global refined metal on Slide 8, Freeport is a significant producer. With the completion of our new smelter in Indonesia, Freeport will essentially be fully integrated globally with internal processing facilities for its mine production.

This is important because countries are becoming more and more focused on critical mineral supply chain resilience, national security issues and global trade. Freeport's positioning as a major producer of refined copper is of strategic significance for the long term. As indicated, we produce a substantial amount of refined copper from leach processing, which does not require a smelter process. And we're going to continue to pursue innovative opportunities to add refined copper on a cost effective basis. Moving to operations on Slide nine, we'll talk about the operating highlights by geographic region starting in The U.

S. Where we continue to drive operating disciplines to enhance efficiencies and improve costs and margins. Making progress as indicated by the improved performance compared with the year ago quarter. With several initiatives underway, there's more opportunity ahead. Our operating teams are benefiting from new tools and data analytics to drive value.

We continue to rebuild skills within our workforce to reduce reliance on more costly contractors. As we look forward, we expect production in The U. S. To increase in 2025 and 2026 compared with 2024 levels. Absent changes in commodity based input costs, we're talking unit costs to trend to the $2.5 per pound range in 2027.

The autonomous haul truck conversion at our Baghdad mine in The US will allow us to test this potential of applying this technology to for use at other locations. At Baghdad, we have half of the autonomous trucks in service and expect to complete the balance over the next few months. We have several initiatives in progress to achieve further scaling in our innovative leach program. This is a high priority. Our teams are now much better equipped with new data and analytic tools, expanded areas under leach and precision leaching processes to achieve higher recoveries in material previously considered waste.

Achieving our targeted run rate to £300,000,000 per annum will benefit 2026 production. We are planning projects to use heat in our injection process to further enhance recoveries and we're advancing internally developed leach additives to provide additional volumes toward our ultimate target of 800,000,000 pounds per annum. As I mentioned, a field trial is underway at Morenci with our first internal generated additive and we've recently identified a potential second additive with initial lab testing indicating superior performance compared with anything we've seen to date. In addition, we're advancing new technology and automation in our basic mining processes to optimize performance. Our work to date indicates a significant opportunity for value creation through meaningful cost reduction and reserve expansion within our existing operations.

We're also continuing to advocate for U. S. Legislation to recognize copper as formally as a critical mineral and eligibility for incentives to promote domestic production. Moving to South America, the team at Cerro Verde operation posted another solid quarter with volumes and costs in line with our expectations. As anticipated, volumes at Cerro Verde were below the year ago quarter because of lower ore grades.

At Alabra, we have advanced plans to test heated raffinate injections in our leach stockpile there expected in 2026 and that is targeted to increase copper recovery and metal volumes. We continue to plan for a major expansion at Alabra, which would capitalize on the large resource we have there and bring substantial scale and operating efficiencies to the mine. In Indonesia, during the second quarter, copper sales copper and gold sales were boosted significantly by a reduction in concentrate and in process inventory following the mid March approval of our export permit and good performance at the newly commissioned precious metals refinery, which processed all of the anode slimes produced at PT smelting during the quarter. Milling rates improved in the second quarter compared with first quarter levels and that reflected a restart of our SAG III mill in the second quarter. In April, we commenced a large planned maintenance project on our SAG II mill, which is expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter.

This will set us up for return to mill rates in the 220,000 ton per day range in the fourth quarter and beyond. Notably, during the second quarter, net unit cash costs at Grasberg were actually a net credit of $0.99 per pound. As indicated, the smelter startup in the second quarter was a meaningful accomplishment and we're working to ramp up in the balance of the year. We have revised our near term outlook for gold to incorporate adjustments to our draw point flow model in the Grasberg Block Cave. This resulted in an approximate 15% reduction in expected 2025 gold production, but did not significantly impact long range plans as indicated on the next slide.

We provided some information on Grasberg ore grades on Slide 10. And for background, the Grasberg Block Cave is one of three currently producing block cave mines in the Grasberg District. It's the same ore body we mined from the surface for over twenty five years prior to transitioning to underground mining in the 2020 timeframe. For those of you who have followed us over time, you'll recall there are sections within the Grasberg ore body with significant grade variation, especially for gold. This results in large swings in gold grades depending on where the material is coming from within the ore body.

At the Grasberg Block Cave, it's a massive block cave. We extract ore from five production blocks and have over 900 draw points currently producing within these five production blocks. We have a practice across the company of updating our forecast quarterly, taking into account all available information. For our block cave mines, we use industry proven software to model cave flows and ore grades. And during the second quarter, we experienced lower grades for gold than our scheduling model estimated and undertook a process to review our ore grade models.

We recalibrated the model on a draw point by draw point basis to better reflect the timing of various ore grades flowing through the draw points. Importantly, the changes are timing related and not expected to impact the ultimate recoveries over the life of deposit. In looking at the updated model, we were able to replicate historical results with better precision than the prior ore grade distribution model. With with mining, there are always learnings throughout the life of a mine, but the management systems and data tools we use today, particularly in our underground, are much improved from the historical open pit era. You can see from the revised multiyear production forecast that the impact is limited to twenty twenty five gold production.

Over the five year period, the actual the aggregate production of gold is close to our prior estimates and there was no significant impact on copper production. With the completion of major mill maintenance in 2025, we're set up to increase mill operating rates in the future. Also in our 2025 forecast, we've incorporated an increase in copper concentrate consumption at the new smelter in Indonesia because of the earlier than forecast startup. This results in more in process inventory than previously forecast and as a timing item. We want to point out that as we transition from an exporter of concentrate to a fully integrated producer in Indonesia, there will be timing differences between production and sales by quarter.

The sale of concentrates historically were recognized immediately on loading of ships at our mine site. And with the smelter, sales will be recognized after processing and sale of refined metal. So this is really a timing match between production and sales. As we look forward, and I'm moving now to our project pipeline, it's clear that additional copper supplies are required to support energy infrastructure, new technologies and more advanced societies. We have an extensive copper resource position and a broad range of projects in various stages of development.

These initial initiatives totaled 2,500,000,000 pounds of copper, which can be developed from Freeport's known resources in jurisdictions where we have established history and experience. Our projects in Indonesia also have the benefit of high gold content that go along with the copper. Because these projects are brownfield in nature, we benefit from leveraging existing infrastructure, our experienced workforces, and relationships with key stakeholders to move more quickly with less risk than a greenfield project. Well, as as we mentioned, we're also looking at innovation and really feel this can bring improvements to the capital intensity of developing new projects. In The US, the projects have the potential to increase production by over a billion pounds per annum with a large portion of that coming from low cost and low capital intensive incremental leach volumes.

In addition, we have an actionable expansion opportunity at our Baghdad mine and are also studying the potential to expand and double production in the Safford Lone Star District. In South America, we and our partner Codelco are planning a major expansion at Alabra through the addition of a new concentrator which would provide seven fifty million pounds of incremental copper per annum. We're completing our permit application. We expect to file that in early twenty twenty six. And we're encouraged by the Chilean government's initiatives to expedite the permitting process broadly in Chile.

In Indonesia, our Kuchin Liyar development continues and we expect to commence production by 02/1930. We're conducting additional exploration below our Deep MLZ ore body and expect that with an extension of our operating rights beyond 02/1941, we'll be set up for additional long term development options in the highly attractive Grasberg District. We'll continue to be disciplined in our approach, targeting opportunities and enhance long term value. And we've got some additional details on these projects covered on Slide 26 of the reference materials. Marie is going to cover financial outlook on the next few slides, and then we'll open up the call for your questions. Marie?

Thanks, Kathleen. Just moving on to Slide 12, we show our three year outlook for sales volumes of copper, gold, and molybdenum. Our guidance for 2025 takes into account the Grasberg ore grade revision, which Kathleen has already discussed, and the timing of production versus sales associated with the smelter startup. 2025 guidance for copper is around 1% below the prior forecast with gold sales down around 17%. But as discussed, these changes are not expected to impact our long range plans, and guidance for 2026 and 2027 remain consistent with our previous estimates.

And continued success in our leaching initiative would provide upside to these estimates. We provide quarterly estimates on slide 23 of the reference material. As you can see, copper sales in the second half of the year are nearly 10% higher than the first half. Our current estimate, the unit the net unit cost for the year 2025 using $3,300 for gold and $22 for moly is approximately a dollar 55 per pound, about 5¢ per pound above the April estimate, principally reflecting the impact of lower gold volumes, partly offset by higher prices of gold and molybdenum. The current unit net cash cost estimate is better than our estimate going into the year of a dollar 60 per pound.

We are continuing initiatives to drive costs lower as we go forward. The details of costs by region are presented on slide 22 in the reference materials. Moving to slide 13, putting together our projected volumes and cost estimates, we show modeled results for EBITDA and cash flow at various copper prices ranging from $4 to $5 copper. These are model results using the average of 2026 and 2027 with current volume and cost estimates and holding gold flat at $3,300 per ounce and molybdenum flat at $22 per pound. Annual EBITDA would range from over $11,500,000,000 per annum at $4 copper to over 15 and a half billion dollars per annum at $5 copper, with operating cash flows ranging from $8,500,000,000 per year at $4 to over $11,500,000,000 at $5.

These estimates assume The US price is the same as the international benchmark price. If we incorporate a 25% premium to our US sales, which is similar to current levels, annual EBITDA would increase by approximately 10%, and operating cash flows would increase by approximately 15%. A 50% premium would increase EBITDA by over 20% and operating cash flows by almost 30%. We show sensitivities to various commodities on the right side of the slide. You will note we are highly leveraged to copper prices with each 10¢ per pound change equating to approximately $425,000,000 in annual EBITDA.

We'll also benefit from improving gold prices with each $100 per ounce change in price approximating $150,000,000 in annual EBITDA. Moving on to slide 14, this shows our current forecast for capital expenditure in 2025 and 2026. Total capital expenditures over the two year period are similar to our previous guidance, with some timing variances, which has deferred approximately $100,000,000 of spend from 2025 to 2026. The discretionary projects are expected to approximate 1,600,000,000.0 to $1,700,000,000 per year in 2025 and 2026, with roughly 50% related to the Kuching Liar development and the LNG project at Grasberg. The balance includes acceleration of tailings and other infrastructure to support the Baghdad expansion, the Atlantic Copper Circular Project, which is expected to be completed by mid twenty twenty six, and capitalized interest.

The discretionary category reflects the capital investments we're making in new value enhancing projects that under our financial policy are funded with the 50% of available cash that is not distributed. These projects, which are detailed on slide 31, will benefit our results in the future. We will continue to be disciplined in allocating capital to projects that enhance our position and generate attractive returns. This is consistent with our track record of efficient capital allocation and value driven approach. On slide 15, we reiterate the financial policy priorities centered on a strong balance sheet, cash returns to shareholders, and investments in value enhancing projects.

Our balance sheet's solid with investment grade ratings, strong credit metrics, and flexibility within our debt targets to execute on our projects. We don't have any significant debt maturities until 2027. In addition to paying our first quarter base and variable dividend, we have repurchased $107,000,000 of FCX common stock in the open market year to date. In total, we have distributed over $5,000,000,000 to shareholders through dividends and share purchases since adopting our financial policy of returning 50% of excess cash flow in 2021. And we have an attractive fee future long term portfolio that will enable us to continue to build long term value for shareholders with the remaining 50%.

We actively monitor current market conditions and carefully manage the timing of our projects to ensure our financial flexibility remains strong. Our global team is focused on driving value in our business, committed to strong execution of our plans, providing cash to invest in profitable growth, and return cash to shareholders. In concluding today's presentation on slide 16, Freeport's large scale, low cost, proven producing assets, actionable low risk growth options, experience and leadership in the global copper industry, as well as our advantageous US footprint provide a strong foundation for the future. Thanks for your attention. We'll now take your questions.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Session.

Our first question comes from the line of Bill Peterson with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Yes. Hi. Good morning, Kathleen and team. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask about the, I guess, mine plan change.

And it sounds like you're you look at this on a quarterly basis, but trying to get a sense for, I guess, what's changed now. Is it something you had seen earlier, but felt you needed more data to, I guess, change the plan? And just anything else that went into basically the modeling update and plan?

Yeah. Thanks for the question. And Mark Johnson is here on the call if we need to fill in anything. But we update our quarterly forecast, as I mentioned. We update our multiyear forecast every quarter.

In Grasberg, we go through a process for each of the ore bodies and look at what the expected rates are. In determining the grades, we use an established software package that industry uses for modeling block caves. And we did detect starting in first half of the year some differentials between what we were actually getting out of the recovery of ore grades versus what the model suggested. Historically, it's been pretty close match. We did recalibrate it once before in at the end of twenty twenty three.

It didn't have material impacts, but we took a took on a process to look at the various settings within the scheduling model and and we're able to develop a update to the calibration that replicated very, very closely the match that we've historically were were were were realizing. And so we have updated that. You you need to consider just the background of the variation of of grade within this ore body. And we have 900 draw points that we're collecting ore through, and there could be changes in the timing of how that ore flows through the draw points from which sections it's coming from particularly below the pit where remember in the open pit area, had a very high grade core gold at the bottom of the pit. So the interplay of the flows where it's moving is really just a timing of figuring out scheduling of how that will roll through our our our grades.

And we were we were very close when we when we recalibrated the model over the long term, but it did have this this short term impact. So I don't know, Mark, if you wanna add anything, any perspectives to those comments.

No. I think well, you handled it very well, Kathleen. The one thing I just might wanna mention is is what we're seeing is that as we start mining from a drop point, we're very confident because the material is just directly above the area that we're mining as these as we continue to pull through this column of rock, some of it is up up to 500 meters above us. This estimation becomes a bit more complex. Not all the material makes its way through that column at an equal rate.

The smaller material tends to work its way through the column of rock quicker. And then, also, we have material that shifts laterally and can end up in in other drop points. So it it becomes a bit more of a big mixing as you get further up. And as Kathleen mentioned, you know, the team that we have on this, the tools that we use are are world class. And, really, we didn't see much variability at all on the copper.

It it's much more stable in the grades, but the gold can shift in value quite dramatically over a relatively short distance, same as it was in the open pit. But in the open pit, we knew exactly that volume of material that we were mining at any given point. And as I mentioned in the block cave, that becomes a bit more of a a a complex estimating of how that material wake work its way from the higher areas of the block cave down into these draw points.

Our next question comes from the line of Katja Yancic with BMO. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe, Kathleen, you mentioned you continue to expect costs in North America to decline over the next two years. But if I'm not mistaken, that doesn't incorporate expectation for the impact from tariffs. Can you maybe talk a bit about how could tariffs impact that outlook?

We're monitoring very closely the impact of tariffs. In terms of what Freeport brings in as the importer of record, it's not a significant impact so far. The the the bigger impact that we're working with our suppliers on is what they are seeing and what various inputs they have into their cost. And so we're working very closely to to monitor that. We've got a we got a task force set up to to monitor it so that we don't have suppliers that are just trying to pass along use the opportunity to pass along price increases, but we're really getting down into the data to understand what it could mean.

The tariffs to date and I know there's some negotiations that are ongoing, but we're currently estimating potential to have a a a 5% impact on our on our cost. But that's something we're monitoring. We're going to look for ways to to to modify our supply chains if possible and work closely with our vendors to make sure that we're sourcing the material as much as possible that it that's tariff free. So but but things like, you know, the steel and aluminum tariffs, you know, that's that's that's hitting us to a degree as well. So we benefit on the one hand to a much much larger extent on on the copper situation, which we talked about.

But the the tariff is is impacting our operating cost, but not to a significant degree. We're really the cost savings that we're talking about, really the efforts underway to drive better efficiencies through through our our innovation that we're doing, focusing on the basics, rationalizing contractors like we talked about, reducing unplanned downtime, getting better asset efficiencies. Our asset health is in much better situation in The US than it has been in recent years. And so we're really now that inflation is somewhat moderated, we're now in a position where we're really driving what we can do to bring costs lower. We've got a lot of automation projects underway.

So and of course, the Leach initiative will really help us out because those those incremental pounds are coming in at at a very low cost. And so we're really excited about the opportunity in The US to bring down cost. And at the same time, we're seeing this premium. So our US business should perform very, very well as we look forward. As a reminder, we don't have we have NOLs in The U.

S. Net operating losses, so it can come in to our margins and cash flows and drop to the bottom line through our results. And so it's a real opportunity for us and we're very focused on driving value in our U. S. Business through efficiency programs and cost reduction programs in addition to the benefit we're getting on this premium.

Our next question comes from the line of Orest Wowkodaw with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning. A couple of questions, if I could. Firstly, I was wondering if there's been any discussions with the US administration with respect to financing or incentives to advance any of your US based growth.

We've had discussions with various government authorities about Freeport. You know, we've gone through submission of the two thirty two comments, and and we've engaged with with various representatives of the US government just as an education about what Freeport is doing in The US as a dominant producer. We talk about supplying 70% of the refined copper that's produced in The U. S. To this market.

We've talked about the technology and the innovation that we have in the business that will allow us to potentially in the short term bring on some additional refined copper. You know, it's not a given that you can bring on refined copper very quickly in terms of there's only two operating smelters in The US. And what we can do in the short term is is is is really try to boost production, refine production through our leach initiative. We've talked with The US about the IRA benefits that being a critical mineral, you have a 10% production credit. Copper is not currently on that list and we're working to try to get copper on that list.

We know with the recent legislature legislation, some of the the IRA benefits are being phased out. But, really, what we are are hoping to accomplish, we we're very happy about, the attention to permitting reforms, but we're hoping to accomplish incentives that would be long term in nature and really could boost US refined production. So we're educating. We're getting it's a two way conversation. Richard's been involved in various discussions as well.

And so we're in a good position on this. Our Baghdad expansion is actionable. We're wanting to get our autonomous truck conversion completed. We want to understand the how this tariff situation will be implemented, etcetera. But in the near term, we're really looking at our Leach initiative as an opportunity to grow refined production in The U. S.

And just as a quick follow-up, do you see any opportunity for potential tariff exemptions on your refined copper coming from either Atlantic Copper or Indonesia into The U. S?

We don't know. We're waiting on the details of the implementation to be released. We don't we're not aware of any exemptions at this point.

Your next question comes from the line of Alan Spence from BNP Paribas. Your line is open.

Good morning and thank you. Indonesia has $0.27 per pound related to treatment charges in cash cost guidance for 2025. Into next year with Nanyar up and running, what do you think your internal cost to operate that smelter would be on a cents per pound basis?

So there's there's they're gonna be in different categories in terms of where the the impacts of the smelter will be. The the operating cost of the smelter, the new smelter, is is somewhere on the order of 27¢ a pound. That doesn't take into account the additional revenues that we get from from getting, you know, essentially when you when you sell concentrate to a smelter, the smelter takes a percentage of the of the of the metal that you sell in them. So that'll show up in revenue, something on the order of of of two and a half percent of the of the revenues of the additional volumes will show up in our revenues. But, you know, net cost will be credited, you know, especially when you look at the impact of the smelter, you're looking at something on the order of 15 or 16¢ net when you consider the the revenue impact.

And then, of course, the the export duty will go away, which was, you know, something on the order of of 30¢ or more in the in the in the second quarter. So it should, at the end of the day, benefit our margins.

Your next question comes from the line of Lawson Winder from BofA Securities. Your line is open.

Thank you very much, operator. Good morning, Richard, Kathleen and Marie, and thank you for the update. I wanted to just follow-up on the Indonesian question there about potentially sending refined copper from Grasberg to The US. So just looking at the two agreements as or the agreement as we know it is today and then looking at what the import tariffs are as proposed, so 50% versus 19%. I mean, there any thought internally for the potential just to ship refined copper from Indonesia to The U.

S. And take advantage of that spread, assuming these agreements and the and the section two thirty two tariffs are finalized as proposed?

Historically, Indonesia has not has not shipped copper with any significance to to The US. You know, we've been a a concentrate producer mostly historically, although we've had the the existing smelter at PT smelting. But historically, the the the copper produced has been shipped out as concentrate or domestically consumed or or or consumed within Southeast Asia. We'll look at whatever, you know, makes sense in the future as to where where it makes the most sense to to sell the the the cathode coming out of our our new smelter. The logical places in the near term will be continue to to to sell in Asia, but we'll we'll look at what, you know, what what makes the the most sense.

The point is is that as as The US is looking at its strategic interest in critical minerals, you know, having a US company with a significant ownership of this operation in Indonesia and and management over it, it gives The US essentially a a security of supply if if it makes sense to to if it's if it's required to to to use it. Today, you know, the the trade flows are mostly, as you know, or is coming to The US from places like, like like, Chile is the predominant, suppliers in Canada and Peru as well. And and so we'll have to just look to see how all this unfolds and what makes the most sense for trade flows.

Yes. Thanks so much for that color. And then just a sort of follow-up on that concept in terms of refined copper within The United States. Have you given any thought to whether if Freeport were to build a smelter in The US, whether a brownfield expansion at Miami would make more sense or, you know, you know, would it possibly make more sense to to build a greenfield smelter? Thank you.

Yeah. We're we're doing some work, and we have been doing some work even before this on, whether there's an opportunity on a on a cost effective basis to expand the Miami smelter Miami, Arizona smelter. And so we're continue continuing to study that as well as, you know, is there an opportunity potentially to recover some additional scrap and use our infrastructure in The US to do that. That that that's been very, limited historically, and we'll we'll look at whether there's there's an opportunity to do it in the future. But so we're looking at an expansion of of Miami.

The the smelter in The US is a greenfield would be, you know, very challenging. I mentioned the the in terms of time frame, the the I mentioned the Indonesia smelter, you know, we were working on that. It it it feels like a lifetime, but we've been working on it for for ten years in terms of identifying a site to to location for it, you know, going through all that needed. And Indonesia really, really wanted to fast track it, But but it it takes a long time to to go through and find the proper site, find the find the the and go through the permitting process, engineering, all those things. But but we do have, you know, the existing infrastructure here in The US and Arizona, and we'll look to look to look to whether it would make sense to to expand it.

You know, I I wanna emphasize though the the real opportunity for us in the near term to get more refined metal in The US is continued success with our leach program. And I mentioned the the additive, trial we're doing. We're making some progress on, additional additives. That combined with our precision leaching processes as well as we're gonna introduce heated graphonate into the into the solutions that we're injecting into the stockpiles. So we're working on those things.

Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Company Participants