Freeport McMoRan's Chairman of the Board, Jim Moffett told the SME Arizona Conference in Tucson this morning that a variety of factors demonstrate that the fundamentals of the copper industry are strong. These include exchange inventories having only supplies of copper equal to 6 days of world consumption, absence of new mining prospects, the down market delaying new projects, supply constraints and shortfalls, and long term growth of the developing world, especially China.
Moffett called for optimism in the industry and across the economy but also acknowledged that Freeport has revised their strategy quickly and dramatically, cutting costs and spending, protecting liquidity, protecting resources for future economic turn-around.
As part of their planning for increased demand, Freeport is drilling hundreds of new core holes around existing mines. They are drilling more than needed to identify just the next years production. He predicted all of the pits in the Morenci complex will eventually combine into one giant pit.
The meeting drew about 400 attendees.