Freeport-McMoRan maintains a positive outlook on its role in global copper production ahead of 2027, with a series of proposed expansions at its main U.S. mines. According to Industrial Info Resources (IIR), as reported in an article written by Will Ploch, assistant editor-in-chief of IIR News Intelligence, the company remains optimistic about long-term copper output despite the serious accident that occurred last year at one of its facilities. IIR is tracking Freeport's projects worldwide with a total value exceeding US$15 billion, of which approximately 70% is attributed to plant expansions.
Of these investments, about $6.36 billion relates to projects based in the United States, again according to IIR data. For the full fiscal year 2026, Freeport expects global sales of approximately 3 billion pounds of copper and 649,000 ounces of gold. The corresponding 2025 figures were 3.6 billion pounds of copper and 1.1 million ounces of gold.
The company attributes the decline mainly to operational bottlenecks, delays and the fatal disaster in September 2025 at the Grasberg mine in Indonesia. Capital expenditure (capex) planned for 2026 amounts to approximately $4.4 billion, a slight increase from the $4.3 billion estimated earlier in the year. For 2027, capex is projected at about $4.8 billion.
Both years include substantial investments to restore and improve operations at Grasberg, as well as a proposed expansion at the Bagdad mine in west-central Arizona. At the Bagdad site, the expansion of three tailings management units is already underway, aimed at supporting current production levels of approximately 216 million pounds of copper and 11 million pounds of molybdenum per year. The project also paves the way for a possible, larger expansion of extraction and processing capacity, targeting annual output of 400 million pounds of copper, 22 million pounds of molybdenum and 64 million pounds of cathode copper.
The tailings expansion is expected to be completed by the end of this year, at which point management plans to reach an investment decision on the broader project. Freeport's chief executive officer, Kathleen Quirk, speaking during the conference call on quarterly results on Tuesday, said: “We expect to make an investment decision on the Bagdad expansion in the fourth quarter. We see it as an attractive opportunity to transform Bagdad into the second-largest copper mine in the United States, benefiting from economies of scale and modern technologies to deliver better performance over several decades.” Quirk also expressed confidence in the long-term prospects of the global copper market.
Regarding Grasberg, Quirk described the efforts to restore production at the site, where last September wet mud and loose material flooded underground areas of the facility, causing the deaths of seven employees. According to the executive, “copper sales have increased in each of the last three quarters, and we expect fourth-quarter sales to be by far the strongest of the year.” She added: “Progress at Grasberg continues, with a ramp-up reaching 67%, and confidence is growing toward full-scale operations.” Among other U.S. proposals, Freeport is evaluating the expansion of the Lone Star mine in Safford, Arizona. According to reports, the long-term project is not expected to begin construction before mid-2028.
It could double the site's copper output to 400 million pounds per year through the installation of a new grinding circuit and a flotation concentrator. Quirk explained that the company is considering a plant of similar size to Bagdad, and that an investment decision will depend in part on the success of a leach-processing initiative, that is, the process by which valuable minerals are recovered from raw ore through dissolution in a solvent. Quirk also reported favorable recoveries in the leaching process at the Chino copper mine in New Mexico, where the company is working on a series of optimizations to its tailings storage.
According to the executive, at sites such as Chino, where leach recovery is higher from the outset, copper recovery rates from ore range between 80% and 85%. The IIR article is based on statements made by Freeport executives during the quarterly results conference call and on data from IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform.
Source: industrialinfo.com