Freeport-McMoRan Says Its Gold and Copper Sales Will Drop. The Stock Plunged.

The Grasberg Block Cave underground mine in Indonesia. After a Sept. 8 mud rush that killed two, the search continues for five missing workers. (Courtesy of Freeport-McMoRan)

Key Points

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• Two workers died and five are missing after a mud rush at a Freeport-McMoRan mine in Indonesia earlier this month.
• The miner lowered its third-quarter sales estimates for copper by 4% and gold by 6% due to the incident.
• Freeport-McMoRan’s stock fell 16.95% and copper futures rose 4% after the announcement, reflecting supply concerns.

Two workers were found dead last weekend and five remain missing after a mud rush earlier this month at one of Freeport-McMoRan’s copper and gold mines in Indonesia, the company announced Wednesday.

Around 800,000 metric tons of mud and debris entered the mine in the previously disclosed Sept. 8 incident, reaching the service level where the missing employees had been working.

Mining operations in the surrounding Grasberg minerals district have been suspended since the mud rush, and the search continues for the five missing workers, the company said.

“We are grieving for our coworkers lost in this tragic incident and extend our sincere condolences to the families who lost loved ones and who remain missing,” said Chairman Richard C. Adkerson and CEO Kathleen Quirk in a statement.

Freeport indicated in Wednesday’s update that the operations stoppage and the damage to infrastructure would have financial consequences. The company lowered its third-quarter sales estimates for copper by 4% and for gold by 6% compared to previous forecasts. Early assessments indicate that production could be 35% lower in 2026 than was previously estimated, although the company warned that “sufficient information is not currently available to forecast future production estimates.”

Freeport stock closed down 16.95% Wednesday on high trading volume, its largest single-day decline since March 18, 2020, at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Dow Jones Market Data. It was Wednesday’s worst performer in the S&P 500 .

Copper futures , which had been trending lower earlier in the day, jumped 4% following Freeport’s update, as markets appeared to price in a drop in supply.

Write to Nate Wolf at nate.wolf@barrons.com