Freeport-McMoRan, the world’s largest publicly traded copper producer, posted a quarterly loss on Wednesday as costs spiked and production of gold and copper plunged at a key Indonesian mine.
While the loss, the company’s first since 2016, wasn’t as steep as analysts had expected, it comes as Freeport is spending billions of dollars to expand Indonesia’s Grasberg copper and gold mine underground, a two-year process that is vital to the company’s future.