Freeport quarterly profit misses expectations amidst Grasberg expansion

Freeport-McMoRan Inc, the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer, posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday due to slipping production and prices for the red metal.

The results come as the company spends more than $15-billion to expand Indonesia’s Grasberg copper and gold mine from an openpit to an underground operation, a complex and time-intensive process.