Freeport-McMoRan

The world is electrifying, and almost all of it runs on copper. In the second quarter of 2026, Freeport sold copper for $6.17 per pound, way up from $4.54 a year earlier. That strong pricing helped push net income to $984 million, up from $772 million the year before, even while it shipped fewer pounds during a mine restart.

Freeport is not just sitting on its mines. Its clever leaching technology squeezed out an extra 47 million pounds of copper last quarter from old rock for very little cost, and the goal is a run rate of 300 million bonus pounds a year. The balance sheet is sturdy too, with net debt of only $2.1 billion, giving it room to keep expanding.

Freeport lives and dies by the price of copper, and that price swings hard. Copper sits near record highs right now, so if the economy slows and prices fall back toward the $4.54 per pound it fetched a year ago, earnings could drop fast. This is not a calm, steady stock.

Its crown-jewel Grasberg mine in Indonesia is still ramping back up after a 2025 mud rush, and that dragged copper sales down to 710 million pounds from 1.0 billion a year earlier. The restart is on schedule, but the company still ate $284 million in idle facility costs this quarter, and any new delay would sting.