Freeport-McMoran announced a 1pc increase in copper output from its mining activity in Q2, despite the struggles at its Cerro Verde mine in Arequipa, Peru.
Richard Adkerson, chief executive officer of Freeport, said that the global team demonstrated strong operations in Q2 and was looking at a favorable long-term market outlook for its products.
For the first six months of 2020, Freeport reported a 3.8pc decline in copper production to 679,673mt from 705,989mt in the same period last year. Sales in H1 2020 decreased by almost 7pc to 675,136mt from the first half of 2019. The company attributed the declines to COVID-19 related shutdowns of mining at its Cerro Verde project.
According to Freeport’s earnings report, the company produced 348,000mt of copper in Q2 2020 up 1.1pc from the prior-year period. Sales fell by 6.3pc to 344,373 during the same period. However, sales were 10pc higher than originally anticipated in April.
Of its total Q2 2020 volume, the company’s North American mines produced 166,969mt while 98,911mt came from Cerro Verde in Peru and El Abra in Chile. The company’s mining activity in Indonesia reported a copper volume of 82,183mt.
Freeport reported revenue of $3.05bn in Q2 2020, down by 16pc from the same quarter in the previous year. However, the company recovered from a loss of $94mn in Q2 2019 to deliver an EBITDA of $217mn.