Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, Inc. (FMCG), the world's largest producers of copper, gold & molybdenum, has had an excellent second quarter. Earnings have practically doubled based on soaring metal prices and sales growth in double digits. The company posted a net profit of $1.37 billion.
Overall revenue for FMCG rose 50% to $5.81 billion. The net profit in the second quarter equated to $1.43 per share. Company growth is being driven by strong demand from China and India for copper and other raw materials.
The company has literally doubled its exploration budget from last year to $250 million. The miner is actively pursuing expansions of a number of its existing projects to help bolster its copper output in 2013 to 4.2 billion pounds.
Chief Executive Richard Adkerson said that one of the reasons that the copper price was so strong throughout the industry was that raising production takes time. He added that they had decided to begin production at the Climax molybedenum project in Colorado next year.
Richard Adkerson said on Thursday that the molybdenum markets looked good. He added that at Climax the engineering was complete and construction was 75 percent complete. He said that they expected to complete this construction early in 2012 and start their ramp-up at that time.