Freeport-McMoRan’s global mining portfolio

Previously we saw that Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) has its operations spread across minerals and oil and gas exploration. Its mining portfolio spans four continents.

In this part, we’ll discuss Freeport’s global mining portfolio. Mining giants such as Vale S.A. (VALE) also have their mining operations spread around the globe. Teck Resources (TCK) and Southern Copper Corp. (SCCO) have their operations primarily in the Americas.

The above chart shows Freeport’s global mining portfolio. As you can see, Freeport has major operations in North America. It has mining as well as energy assets in the United States. Freeport also has mining assets in South America, Africa, and Indonesia. Currently, Freeport forms 3.35% of the Materials Select Sector SPDR (XLB).

In South America, Freeport mainly has copper mining assets. It has reserves there of 31.8 billion pounds of copper and 0.7 billion pounds of molybdenum. It also operates two mines in South America. One of these mines is located in Peru, and the other is in Chile.

Chile and Peru together account for more than 40% of global copper reserves. You can learn more about copper reserves in our recent series An investor’s guide to the copper industry.

Freeport’s African operations are located in the Tenke Fungurume copper and cobalt minerals district in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has reserves there of 7.1 billion tons of copper and 0.85 billion tons of cobalt.

Freeport has reserves of 29 billion pounds of copper and 28 million ounces of gold in Indonesia. Its Indonesian operations have been impacted by a recent government ruling there. We’ll look at this in more detail in later parts of this series.

In the next part of this series, we’ll look at Freeport’s mining interests in the United States.