WASHINGTON — Shares of Freeport-McMoRan tumbled Wednesday after the Phoenix-based miner said it expected a significant decline in third-quarter copper revenue due to an accident at its Indonesia mine earlier this month that will keep much of it shut down into the first half of 2026.
Freeport said in a release Wednesday that it expects consolidated sales of copper to be 4% lower than its July estimates. Gold sales are expected to be 6% lower than previous estimates.
Shares of Freeport fell more than 13% at midday, to $39.31 each.
Copper futures rose 3.8% to $4.82 a pound at midday, with analysts at Jeffries saying they expect prices to climb above $5 per pound “imminently."
On Sept. 8 about 800,000 metric tons of “wet material” entered the Grasberg Block Cave mine, moving rapidly to dif