Hello, and welcome to the Freeport-McMoRan 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Please note that today's meeting is being recorded. During the meeting, we will have a question and answer session. Stockholders can submit questions or comments at any time by clicking on the Q&A tab at the top of the webcast screen. It is now my pleasure to turn today's meeting over to Richard Adkerson, Chairman of the Board. Mr. Adkerson, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Regina, and welcome everyone to the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Freeport-McMoRan. I am Richard Adkerson, Chairman of the annual meeting. Our global team achieved success during 2023 on a number of our important initiatives to enhance the value of our company, advance our growth operations, and position us for the future. During 2024, we are continuing to prioritize productivity gains, operating and capital cost discipline, and advancement of organic opportunities for future long-term growth.
We are dedicated to increasing the long-term value of our attractive assets, supported by the successful track record of execution by our experienced and committed team, maintaining a strong financial position with exposure to copper and other commodities that have a favorable long-term market fundamentals. I call the meeting to order.
The meeting will follow the order of business and will be conducted in accordance with the rules of order, copies of which are posted on the website, webcast screen. Stockholders of record who have joined the meeting today, in accordance with the instructions set forth in our proxy materials, may vote and submit questions pertinent to meeting matters during the meeting. You may submit questions by clicking on the Q&A tab at the top of the webcast screen and typing your question in the box and then submitting it.
These questions will not be visible to other meeting participants. Questions that are pertinent to meeting matters will be answered live during the question and answer period. When submitting questions, please provide your name and contact information in the event follow-up is necessary. You will be identified before your question is answered.
Any questions relevant to meeting matters that cannot be answered due to time constraints can be submitted to investor relations for our company, as outlined in our proxy materials. As a reminder, if you have joined today's meeting as a guest, you will not be allowed to vote or submit questions during the meeting. As we announced in February 2024, effective with this annual meeting, today, Kathleen Quirk, Freeport's President and member of our board, will assume the additional role of Chief Executive Officer of our company, succeeding me in this position.
As a senior member of the company's executive team for more than 20 years and Chief Financial Officer from 2003 to 2022, when she became President, Kathleen has been instrumental in Freeport's strategic planning and execution of our company's goals of being foremost in copper.
The transition is a result of a multi-year succession planning process led by our board, and the appointment recognizes Kathleen's distinguished tenure and contributions at Freeport and her proven leadership and track record of accomplishments. As part of the transition, I will continue to serve as chairman of the board and an executive officer of the company to provide ongoing assistance and support for our strategic priorities, our key business relationships, and other matters to support Kathleen and our team.
The board will continue to maintain its independent leadership structure, with Dustan McCoy continuing to serve as our Lead Independent Director. I'm personally proud of our board, which has been expanded significantly in recent years. Our board is diverse. Our directors have a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing our global business.
I'm grateful to each of our directors for their service, contributions and commitment to the future success of Freeport in support of our management team. I will now introduce my fellow directors. Dustan McCoy, our Lead Independent Director, is retired Chairman and CEO of Brunswick Corporation. David Abney is retired Chairman and CEO of UPS. Marcela Donadio is a retired partner and Americas oil and gas sector leader of Ernst & Young. Bob Dudley is retired Group Chief Executive, BP. Hugh Grant is retired Chairman of the Board, President, CEO of Monsanto Company.
Lydia Kennard is President, CEO of KDG Construction Consulting and Quality Engineering Solutions. Ryan Lance is Chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips. Sara Lewis is retired CEO of Lewis Corporate Advisors. Kathleen Quirk, our President and now CEO.
John Stephens, retired Senior Executive Vice President and CFO of AT&T, and Frances Townsend, founder of Frances Fragos Townsend, LLC. In addition to Kathleen, we have two members of management participating in today's virtual meeting.
David Joint is Vice President of Investor Relations. Monique Cenac, Assistant General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of the company, and Secretary of this meeting. Also participating are Brent Papek and Tracy Christman, partners of Ernst & Young, our independent registered public accounting firm. They are available to respond to questions during the question and answer period. Monique will now describe the procedures for this meeting.
Mr. Chairman, we will include in the records of the meeting a signed affidavit evidencing that notice of the meeting, accompanied by either a notice of internet availability of proxy materials or a proxy statement, a form of proxy, and an annual report, have been duly mailed to each stockholder of record.
Computershare will serve as Inspector of Election and tabulate the votes of the meeting. The Inspector of Election has taken and subscribed an oath, which will be included with the minutes. I've been informed by the Inspector of Election that there are present in person, including by remote communication or by proxy, stockholders entitled to vote, holding at least the majority of the outstanding shares of common stock on the record date, April 15th, 2024.
Accordingly, a quorum is present, and the meeting is duly convened for purposes of transacting such business as may properly come before us. I remind everyone that today's presentation and certain of our comments on this live video webcast may include forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially. I refer everyone to the cautionary language included in our presentation materials and to the risk factors described in our 2023 Form 10-K. Ms. Quirk?
Thank you, Monique. At Freeport, we're focused on unlocking the value of copper for the benefit of all stakeholders in a safe, responsible, and sustainable manner. Our conviction in the favorable long-term fundamentals of copper underpins our strategy that is centered on being foremost in copper. In 2023, as Richard discussed, we achieved multiple operating records at the Grasberg Minerals District in Indonesia and at our Cerro Verde operations in Peru. We're continuing to build significant momentum in the Americas with our innovative and low-cost, high-value leach initiatives.
These successes are attributable to our highly capable management team and talented global workforce, supported by strong ongoing engagement and oversight by our board of directors. After growing our volumes in recent years, we sustained copper production in 2023 during a challenging environment for industry supply, and we've reported another year of growth in gold production. We continued to actively manage costs and productivity initiatives to address inflationary impacts.
Our future growth options are supported by our sizable copper reserves and an even larger resource position. Within our portfolio, we look for opportunities to maximize value through innovation, operating efficiencies, and investments in projects where we have large resource positions. We have a proven track record and plan to continue to leverage our existing infrastructure, our people, and our capabilities to increase values from our large resource base.
In the United States, we achieved our initial target from our innovative leach recovery project and advanced development options for potential expansion at our Bagdad mine in Northwest Arizona. We're developing additional resources in the Grasberg Minerals District in Indonesia and advancing studies for a potential major expansion project at our operation in Chile. Market conditions for copper are increasingly positive as we look forward, and there's growing recognition of factors driving favorable fundamentals. We saw earlier this quarter, prices rise to new highs in 2024. The growing intensity of use of copper in the global economy is supported by secular trends, particularly for electrification.
Copper is a foundational, essential metal when it comes to electrification, and the world is becoming more and more focused on copper-intensive energy applications. New massive investment in the power grid, renewable generation, technology infrastructure, and transportation are driving increased demand for copper, and forecasts call for above-trend growth in demand for the foreseeable future.
This is occurring at a time when there are constraints on existing supplies, an absence of major new copper development projects, and extended multiyear lead times for supply development, pointing to tight market conditions for an extended, extended period of time. We're very positive on the outlook, long-term outlook for copper. During 2023, we returned cash to shareholders in line with our established financial policy. Since we implemented our performance-based payout framework in 2021, shareholder returns have totaled $4 billion.
Our financial policy continues to be centered on maintaining a strong financial position, providing cash returns to shareholders, and investing in value-enhancing growth projects. In addition to our successful business execution and leadership transition, Freeport continues to make progress on our initiatives, and leading as a responsible producer of copper.
Among other accomplishments, we achieved and maintained the Copper Mark designation and the Molybdenum Mark designation at all of our operating sites. We continue to progress implementation of the global industry standard on tailings management and continue to advance our climate strategy and other important sustainability-related initiatives. I encourage you to review our annual sustainability and climate reports, both of which are available on our website. Thank you.
Thank you, Kathleen. We're all so enthusiastic and positive about the outlook for our company. We've never been more so. It is now time to open the polls and commencing the voting by stockholders. As set forth in the company's proxy statement, the stockholders will vote on four items. The first item is the election of 12 directors. The second item is the approval on an advisory basis of the compensation of the company's named executive officers.
The third item is the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2024. And the fourth item is the approval of the amendment of the company's certificate of incorporation to provide for our officer exculpation. There are no other proposals to be voted upon at this meeting.
I certify that the four items you have announced are the only items of business to be properly voted on at the meeting. If you have already submitted your proxy, your vote has been counted and no further action on your part is necessary. If you are a stockholder entitled to vote and have not yet voted, or if you want to change your previously cast vote, please do so now via the website used to access this meeting. The polls will remain open until the chairman closes them.
We will now address stockholder questions about any of the items being voted upon at this meeting. In accordance with the rules of order, the entire question-and-answer period will be limited to a total of 20 minutes. David Joint, Vice President of Investor Relations, will read any questions pertinent to the meeting matters to be voted on, and I'll respond.
Mr. Chairman, we do not have any questions pertinent to today's meeting submitted.
Thank you, David. If you have other questions, you can direct those to David Joint for us to follow up on. So this concludes the question-and-answer period. The polls are about to close, so if you have not yet voted, please do so now. The polls are now closed on all items of business. It is now 10:14 A.M. Eastern Time. I ask the secretary to present to the meeting the preliminary voting results.
Any proxies or votes submitted during the meeting will be included in the final results of the voting. Subject to a final tabulation, we report the following preliminary results provided by the Inspector of Election. With respect to the election of the 12 directors, each of the 12 director nominees has been elected, with holders representing at least 95% of the votes cast, voting in favor of the election of each director nominee.
The advisory approval of our executive compensation is passed, with holders representing 94% of the shares of common stock present in person or represented by proxy and entitled to vote on the matter, voting to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers.
The ratification of Ernst & Young has been approved, with holders representing 96% of the shares of common stock present in person or represented by proxy and entitled to vote on the matter, voting to ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2024. The amendment to the company's certificate of incorporation has been approved, with holders representing 70% of the outstanding shares of common stock entitled to vote thereon, voting to amend the certificate of incorporation to allow for officer exculpation.
I declare that the 12 persons nominated for election as directors have been duly elected. I declare that the stockholders have approved, on an advisory basis, the compensation of the company's named executive officers. I declare that the appointment of Ernst & Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2024 has been duly ratified. I declare that the stockholders have approved the amendment to the company's certificate, certificate of incorporation to provide for officer exculpation.
A current report on Form 8-K will be filed with the SEC within four business days, reporting the final results of the voting at today's meeting, a copy of which will be available on the company's website.
Thank you, Monique. All items of business have now been completed. There being no further business to come before the meeting, the meeting is now adjourned. Thank you for participating in today's meeting. Operator, please conclude the call.
This concludes today's meeting, and you may now disconnect.