Freeport-McMoRan shares fell Thursday after the top U.S. copper producer warned that its Grasberg mine in Indonesia will take longer than expected to return to full operation, weighing on future production forecasts.
The company said it is pushing back the restart schedule at the Grasberg complex after discovering new problems with specialized equipment needed to resume operations. The mine was taken offline following a deadly mudslide last year. Grasberg is Freeport's flagship asset and one of the largest copper and gold mines in the world.
The delay is a significant setback for the company. Copper demand has been climbing, driven in large part by the global expansion of electric vehicles, power grids, and AI data center infrastructure. Any disruption to supply from a mine of Grasberg's scale carries weight in commodity markets.
Freeport did not provide a revised timeline for the full restart in its initial disclosure. The stock declined on the news as investors recalibrated expectations for near-term output from the Indonesian operation. Bloomberg reported the development Thursday on its Markets program.
The mudslide that initially forced the shutdown caused fatalities and extensive damage to mine infrastructure. The new equipment challenges suggest the recovery effort has encountered complications beyond the original scope of repairs. Freeport has not disclosed the nature of the specific equipment failures or how long the revised restart schedule will add to the outage.
