Freeport-McMoRan third-quarter net income rises to $1.2 billion as copper prices rise

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) said Tuesday in a regulatory filing that third-quarter net income attributable to common stock rose to $1.2 billion, or $0.81 per share, from $674 million, or $0.46 per share, a year earlier.

Adjusted net income attributable to common stock was $1.3 billion, or $0.88 per share. The company excluded after-tax net charges of $101 million, or $0.07 per share, mostly for idle facility and restoration costs tied to the September 2025 external mud rush incident at its Indonesian unit, PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI).

Here's how the company did:

• Net income attributable to common stock: $1,174 million, or $0.81 per share, vs. $674 million, or $0.46 per share, a year earlier
• Adjusted net income attributable to common stock: $1,275 million, or $0.88 per share, vs. $722 million, or $0.50 per share, a year earlier
• Revenues: $7,546 million vs. $6,972 million a year earlier
• Operating income: $2,353 million vs. $1,972 million a year earlier

For the first nine months, net income attributable to common stock was $3,039 million, or $2.10 per share, compared with $1,798 million, or $1.24 per share, a year earlier.

Nine-month revenues were $20,809 million, up from $20,282 million. Nine-month operating income was $6,493 million, compared with $5,707 million.

Copper sales fell to 749 million pounds from 977 million pounds a year earlier. The company said the decline primarily reflected lower operating rates at PTFI during the ramp-up of the Grasberg Block Cave underground mine and the timing of shipments.

Copper production was 832 million pounds, down from 912 million pounds a year earlier.

Gold production was 234 thousand ounces, but gold sales were 105 thousand ounces, down from 336 thousand ounces. The company attributed the gap mainly to the timing of refined gold sales in Indonesia and in-process inventories at smelting and refining operations.

The average realized copper price was $6.54 per pound, up from $4.68. Gold realized $4,273 per ounce, up from $3,539, and molybdenum realized $32.46 per pound, up from $24.07.

Unit net cash costs for copper were $2.07 per pound, up from $1.40 a year earlier. The company said the increase primarily reflected lower copper and gold volumes at PTFI and higher production costs, including for energy and other consumables.

Operating income at Cerro Verde in Peru was $936 million, up from $467 million. Operating income at the Indonesia operations was $616 million, down from $1,282 million.

Operating cash flow was $1,981 million in the quarter, up from $1,689 million. Capital expenditures were $1,159 million, compared with $1,056 million a year earlier.

At September 30, consolidated debt totaled $9,398 million and cash and cash equivalents totaled $4,335 million. Net debt was $1.8 billion, excluding $3.2 billion of debt for PTFI's downstream processing facilities.

For 2026, the company expects consolidated sales of about 3.0 billion pounds of copper, 649 thousand ounces of gold and 93 million pounds of molybdenum. Unit net cash costs are expected to average $1.90 per pound of copper for the year, assuming prices of $6.50 per pound for copper, $4,000 per ounce for gold and $32.00 per pound for molybdenum in the fourth quarter.

The company also expects operating cash flow of about $8.5 billion for 2026 and capital expenditures of about $4.4 billion, including $3.0 billion for mining projects. It estimates an effective tax rate of about 30% for the year.

President and Chief Executive Officer Kathleen Quirk said, "The Freeport team delivered strong financial results in the third quarter and achieved several important milestones to drive value and support future growth."

Quirk also said, "Favorable pricing for our products, particularly for copper and molybdenum, drove strong margins with substantial conversion to bottom-line results."

PTFI's smelter re-commenced operations in late August 2026. Mill throughput averaged 141 thousand metric tons of ore per day in the third quarter, or 67% of capacity. The company continues to expect to reach 80% of capacity in mid-2027 and to approach full capacity by year-end 2027.

Idle facility, direct recovery and restoration costs totaled $244 million in the quarter, compared with $171 million a year earlier.

The board declared cash dividends totaling $0.15 per share on Sept. 23, made up of a $0.075 base dividend and a $0.075 variable, performance-based dividend. The dividend is payable Nov. 2, 2026, to holders of record as of Oct. 15, 2026, and matches the $0.15 declared in the third quarter of 2025.

During the quarter, the company bought 1.4 million shares for $102 million, an average of $70.75 per share. For the first nine months, it bought 4.9 million shares for $305 million.

As of Oct. 26, the company had bought 56.8 million shares for $2.3 billion under its $5.0 billion share repurchase program.