Okay, great. Our next session is with Freeport-McMoRan. We're gonna mix this up a bit and do a fireside chat format. Obviously, we'll be pulling questions from the app, so if you have any questions, please send them through. Joining me is Richard Adkerson, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Freeport-McMoRan. Freeport is the world's largest publicly traded copper producer, also a significant producer of gold and molybdenum. Core assets in Indonesia, North America, and South America. Richard is one of the longest-tenured senior executives in the copper industry. He's navigated Freeport through quite a few very eventful years during his time. Freeport is arguably now positioned better than it's ever been before. With that brief intro, Richard, I'm gonna turn it over to you for some opening remarks.
Thanks, Dave. I'm not gonna say much. I mean, it's been a really exciting three years at Freeport after challenges. We all still face challenges, of course, but three years ago, we reached an agreement with the Indonesian government after years of really challenging discussions, and that agreement has worked very effectively. Our relationships with our government and our shareholder partner, they are the state-owned company MIND ID, have never been better and working very good. Two years ago, we completed mining the Grasberg open pit. I went out there in 1988 and took a picture of the exploration shack. To see the picture. I get a picture at the end of every year of the pit.
The end of this year made me realize we mined almost five billion tons of material out of it, 50 billion pounds of copper, almost 50 billion pounds of copper, almost 30 billion pounds of copper, and 50 million ounces of gold. Now our underground mine, which we began developing underneath the Grasberg open pit when we finished mining in the pit at the end of 2019, is intersecting with the pit. My picture this year shows this big white section of the mine where the material is going down into block cave. That was something we had to plan for. Challenging, but all of that's going just extremely well. We began investing in that more than 20 years ago, and it was a topic of conversation at each one of these BMO conferences ever since then. That went really well.
It's going really well. Our operations in the Americas are progressing. We're now focusing in on taking advantage of our reserve life. I mean, we've got 25 years approved in probable reserves, and we have roughly twice that. That's at $2.50 copper. Roughly twice that in resources at $3 copper that are not yet proved reserves that contain copper in it. Now we're focused on looking forward to taking advantage of that internal growth opportunity, which we'll approach in a very disciplined way. Debt reduction. I mean, we've come a long way. You know, 2016, we were in a really tough situation for several factors. Now we've got investment-grade ratings. Our debt's de minimis. We're returning cash to shareholder, increasing our dividends, buying stock back.
All I'll say is it's just a great feeling to be where we are here today. We were actually there in 2012. No debt, $60 billion market cap, and then events happened. We've got a great team. We're bolstering our team, even though we're working with COVID. We've done a great job in managing COVID. It's not gone away. We're still having cases. People think Omicron is just a case of head cold, but you know, it's tough keeping people coming to work, but we're doing that effectively. I look forward to your questions. I always enjoy this conference. Thanks, David. Thanks BMO for hosting it.
All right. Great. Thanks for the opening remarks. Thank you very much. I'll start it off. You've seen a lot in your career, obviously. The question is, how do you see the industry and markets today in the copper industry, compared with when, for example, Grasberg was developed, effectively 40 years ago?
Well, you know, I've talked about three eras of copper demand. Pre-2003, I became CEO in 2003, it was strictly driven by global industrial production in the developed world. China emerged, turned it upside down. Historically, before the mid-2000s, there was always a lot of known copper deposits to be developed. But really what led us to do the Phelps Dodge deal in 2007 was a recognition that copper markets had changed then and the industry was really challenged in meeting new supplies, and that's been proved over all that time. Now, today, we're not looking just to China for growth. China is an important part of the market, but copper demand is coming from a number of different sources outside China, and we can talk more about that.
Two-thirds of copper or approximately two-thirds goes into electricity uses, and the world is just getting more electrified. Coming is this huge new element of demand that's gonna come from carbon reduction investments. You know, it's not here yet, but it's beginning to be there, but it's going to be a big part of the future. I'm sure Roe talked about this this morning. It's, you know, I'm just really excited. Our company with our breadth of producing properties and we've shown we can develop, operate properties anywhere around the world. We've got a great team of people, and I just believe you'd be hard-pressed to ever find a commodity, a major commodity, that's as well-situated for the future as copper is, and that's what our strategy is focused on, to be the world's foremost copper company.
Okay. There's a few questions already coming in on the app regarding the supply side constraints that we're seeing, some of which are precipitated by increased regulatory environment, government changes, things of that nature. One of the questions is: how does El Abra, you know, fit into your future thinking, given the leadership changes in Chile?
Okay, El Abra is a property we have in Chile, where we're 51% and Codelco is 49%. It's a historical operation, and one of the things we did after the Phelps Dodge deal was do a lot of core drilling to understand what our resources were. We found El Abra has been a sulfide leaching operation. We found this enormous sulfide resource, and we're in the process of assessing how to develop it. It would require major mill investment, a desal plant, and getting water to altitude. It is a serious project. The world will need it someday, but for the time being, we're continuing to working on engineering, permitting plans. We're not gonna make an investment decision until the uncertainty about the political regime in Chile comes into play.
Okay. Freeport's balance sheet right-sized again. Nice growth pipeline now set up nicely, good capital allocation, communication moving forward. The question is, what is Freeport's view towards M&A opportunities in the sector? You know, would Freeport prefer to be a buyer or seller of assets over the next three years?
We are not forced in any respect to act on M&A opportunities. In fact, you know, our strategy is built on focusing on operating our business and growing our production internally. Now, with copper being a scarce asset, and I think increasingly a scarce asset, M&A is inevitable in our industry. It's just inevitable. My experience has been, when I look across the industry and our own company's situation, that M&A is something that is most successful when it's done on an opportunistic basis. We're positioning the company not with plans to be a buyer or seller, but we'll be in the marketplace and from a position of strength, and if opportunities come, we'll be in a position to consider them. We have no plans to now.
When you talk about considering opportunities, you know, in terms of being a buyer or seller, would there be more emphasis on the buyer side or the seller side?
It depends on the opportunity.
All right.
I mean, we're focused on running this business for our stakeholders, okay? Old Phelps Dodge is one of those industrial companies where they try to build a moat around the company and protect it above all other things. We're in this business for stakeholders, shareholders and other stakeholders that we represent, our workforce, our communities and governments where we operate. It depends on what opportunity might emerge. I'm trying to be careful because I don't want anybody to interpret what I'm saying is that we've got something in mind, whatever. It's strictly a positioning phase. Looking out at this industry from copper, 'cause I think copper's demand is gonna continue to be strong.
There'll be ups and downs, as always, and supply development is really challenged, and it goes with, starting with geology. You know, you just don't have the kind of high-quality ore bodies around the world that you once did. Grades are lower, many of the resources are underground. Costs are rising. Developing new supplies are really challenging. Then you have the issue of community opposition to greenfield development. You have governments that can be complicated to deal with. I mean, you just have to look, 40% of today's copper comes from Chile and Peru, and they each have new presidents who ran on social programs that need revenues to fund those programs. All of this, and it's not the only two countries. You know, I like the commodity, and I really like where Freeport's positioned with it.
It's a long-term business.
In terms of the pipeline within Freeport, Kucing Liar is really the next big one, $4 billion over 10 years.
Mm-hmm.
Can you speak a little bit about the, you know, challenges and the opportunities within Kucing Liar as you start developing that next major asset?
The Grasberg ore bodies are porphyry, and there were skarn deposits off that porphyry, which was the original Ertsberg mine, and then the series of underground mines, where we're mining the Deep MLZ. I was out there in the 1990s when we were driving an adit from our mill site to dewater the Grasberg open pit. I remember our senior engineer came running out with a big hunk of ore that we had not identified. They like to gig the geologists, particularly one geologist we had at the company at the time, about how the engineers discovered this ore body. We drilled it out. We understand it's got some complications. It has pyrite in it.
We revised the mine plan to reduce the amount of pyrite we have to mine and to increase the value of it. The infrastructure is in place. It's not having to develop infrastructure. We developed these mines horizontally at Grasberg because of the elevation. It'll be a large world-class block cave. 90,000 tons a day is a big block cave mine. It'll fit right in with our current production profile as grades change, particularly with the Deep MLZ mine. There's resources there that go beyond 2041, where our current rights to operate are scheduled to retire. It makes no sense for any stakeholders for us to run this operation with a drop-dead date.
We've begun discussions with the government of Indonesia and our partner, and there is recognition that it makes sense for us to find an approach to extend the operations, and that will open up further exploration. We really haven't been spending money on further delineating opportunities there because we filled our mill through 2041. This will give us a chance to go in and look at KL and look at other potential opportunities in with this porphyry and the skarns that are there.
You have a long history of discussions with the Indonesian government, and they tend to take a fair amount of time. What would you envision as you know from a timeframe perspective, in Freeport's opinion, what would be the best time to sew up this next,
Freeport's perspective? Tomorrow.
Tomorrow. What's a realistic time?
That's not realistic. I will say, you know, the government officials are reacting positively to the very preliminary discussions. We just haven't been able to do that in the past because we were focused on the original contract deal, and then we're focused on the underground ramp up. We had labor issues at one time. Our labor relationships are just incredibly positive there now. We'll be advancing those discussions this year, and we'll have to see how we can find a way forward.
Okay.
It's real compelling logic, though, for everybody.
Okay. Switching back to Chile and Peru, what's your outlook for the countries for the next 10-15 years? And what would need to happen to make them more, you know, mining friendly?
You know, uncertainty is what the challenge is. Now we've had previous presidents in Peru run on similar agendas to the current president's agenda. When governments have these things, and then they're faced with developing economy, having strong currency, having employment, having things like that's the opportunity for our industry to come together and say, "What are your concerns? How can we contribute to them and work out solutions that make sense for all the parties?" That's a process going through, and I'm confident that it will. I don't know how long it will take, but we're certainly engaged with it. Peru is a much more significant operation for us. The Cerro Verde mine in Peru is, has the copper industry's largest mill processing facilities.
We're operating today at like 400,000 tons a day through the mill, and we were above that before COVID. It's real, and it's, you know, kind of today's copper mine is low grade. You have to move a lot of material. The tailings dam we're building there is gonna be one of the largest earthen dams ever built in the history of mankind. I mean, it's enormous. It's really important to us. We're engaged with the government and trying to find ways of being responsive to the aspirations of the people in a way that we can operate profitably.
Another question, labor. Labor shortage. The question is, have you seen a labor shortage like the current one, in your career?
Well, I would say it's regional. Let's look at the U.S. When the boom leading up to the mortgage crash of 2007 to 2008, I mean, 2008 and 2009, when we bought Phelps Dodge, it was a real problem. I mean, I was looking then at working like the offshore oil industry works and have fly in, fly out. Instead, we built a stronger community where families can live with health, recreational facilities, and so forth. That was a challenge. Today it's a real challenge, you know, particularly for skilled workers. We're doing a little better, I think, with college grads. I was just talking with the engineering mining schools at the University of Arizona, which supplies a lot of our workers.
You know, modern mining is different from mining before. You can talk to them about using data analytics and more cutting edge. We always have to deal with Indonesia, we had great workers 'cause we pay very well. Pay very well in Peru, they have a profit-sharing plan for their workers that's government-mandated. It's an ongoing thing we have to deal with. We'll find ways.
Okay. That leads into actually the next question, which is innovation. There's been quite a bit of it lately, and Freeport's you know, also been at the forefront of some of that commentary. How has innovation changed the way Freeport operates, and how do you see it changing?
Oh, it's remarkable. What's artificial intelligence with our milling operations, and now we're expanding the mining. The real exciting thing is what we're doing with leaching, from gathering data within these massive leach stockpiles. Before, it was more of a trial-and-error deal. You know, you came up with a mixture of acid and water, and you say, "It worked." Now we're being able to measure things, so it's given us pause. For our company, Morenci is the largest leaching operation in the world. Then beyond our active stockpiles, there's all these inactive stockpiles from the history that we've had.
It's this great combination of fundamental research and the ability to use technology to measure the impact of things that you're doing so that you can make adjustments on much more of a timely basis.
At one point, Freeport provided numbers, information that suggested that Freeport could grow their volumes by as much as, I think it was like 5% based on some innovation, a little CapEx. Is that still a valid number, and do you think the industry overall can match that kind of growth?
You know, like I said, we are situated because of the history of our operations. You know, we have these old low-grade ore bodies and extensive leaching, so it's... others have that. I think we have a special place with that. That number is a reasonable number, but it's not something we really can. The technology's evolving. We're testing things right now. I was just out at Morenci, and you got these massive covers we're putting on these things to use heat, and not everybody believes heat's gonna be a significant positive thing. Our guys do, and we'll see. It's a lot going on, but it's a great opportunity. It's not a game changer for the dynamics of the industry.
I mean, it'll be a way to add meaningful production for Freeport with low capital investment and low carbon impacts, so that's good. We'll still be investing in, you know, traditional mining and processing.
Okay, you mentioned carbon and then switching gears a little bit to the ESG topic. You know, obviously quite a bit of focus and Freeport's, you know, again, always on the list. You know, what do you, in your opinion, for Freeport, what are the, you know, the best opportunities for improvement within Freeport from an ESG perspective, and where are the, you know, the biggest challenges?
You know, ESG, environment, social, governance, but today's world, you mentioned ESG, everyone's talking about carbon emissions. Okay. We're focused on carbon emissions. You know, internally within our company, copper as a commodity doesn't have the same issues with Scope 3 carbon emissions that other commodities have. But we have massive coal reserves, and we built that plant a number of years ago. We're in the process of taking steps to convert it away from coal eventually. We're now investing in a dual fuel processing there that'll use biofuels and ultimately likely LNG. We're looking at hydro opportunities there, which we had looked at before. The other big thing is big haul trucks.
You know, and so we're working with the industry and with suppliers on how to deal with those. Everybody's committed to it. You know, we had a forest fire in our Bagdad Mine town site last year. Forest fires are all over the West. I just flew here this morning from New Orleans, and you can still see the impact of hurricanes there. It's something we all take very seriously. We all got to find ways of doing it. Today, there's still more questions than answers about how to do it, but the pressure to do it is accepted by everybody, and we wanna be part of it. Beyond climate change, we really cut our teeth with social issues in Papua, in Indonesia.
I mean, first of all, I think it's the most complicated physical mine in the world, but the social issues are incredibly complicated there because of the relationship between the indigenous people, who now make up about 1/3 of our workforce, and the central government. We've had to learn, we have learned to operate in a very complicated social situation that served us well in Africa, in Peru, and in the United States. We're really committed to gain community's trust, and we do that every day, and we've gained that. You know, the, I was just at the San Carlos Apache's reservation talking to their leader, and they want us to help them develop trade schools to work in our mines, to build housing to work in our mines. Big difference in brownfield expansion than trying to build a new mine.
New mine affects the terrain, the communities in a way, but when you've operated in place for a long time and done the right things and put a high priority on it works. From a governance standpoint, I became Chairman of Freeport-McMoRan a year ago. I've added six new directors at Freeport-McMoRan.
Okay.
Freeport's board was Freeport's board, but now we've got a world-class board and we got four new CEOs who had international business experience. We got two people who have outstanding audit committee credentials. You know, we now have four women on our board, two women of color. We're committed to that. We've added new resources in our company recently. We have a new CFO starting tomorrow, who's a woman with industry experience, and we've added new resources in our ESG area. Plus, we had a great team to start with. It's been such a part of our. I mean, we had to deal with it in Papua, and it was complicated.
We have just a real strong understanding of what to do and how to do it, but the issues are very, very, very complicated.
Okay. I've got a very long list of questions that we're not gonna get to. Unfortunately, we've run out of time, but thank you very much. Appreciate it, and hopefully you enjoy the rest of the conference. Thank you.
All right. Thank you so much.