Strike hurts Freeport-McMoRan; Company still beats estimates set by Wall Street

摘要

THE LONG AND sometimes violent labor strife at the Grasberg Mine in Indonesia in 2011 took a toll on mine owner Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold's bottom line. It reported a 60-percent drop in fourth-quarter profits. However, the company still beat Wall Street estimates and its shares inched up.Freeport-McMoRan said it was working to restore operations at the Grasberg Mine after a three-month strike, Reuters reported.Freeport-McMoRan chief executive Richard Adkerson acknowledged the company had been through a difficult time with the strike at Grasberg and another at Cerro Verde in Peru. But now that they have been resolved, Freeport could focus on expandingmining projects, which he forecast would increase copper production by 25 percent in the next four years.