Copper outlook part 27 Aug 2018 08:47
The problems facing copper supply are meaningful, widespread and generally underestimated," said David Lilley, managing director of Drakewood Capital Management. "It seems like wherever you look there are challenges be they political, labor unrest, under-investment, ore-grade depletion or some combination of them all."
The output drop at Grasberg has been a long time coming.
The mine, which sits at high altitude amid the tallest mountain range in Indonesia’s remote Papua province, is one of the world’s richest mineral deposits, pumping out billions of dollars’ worth of copper and gold over the past 30 years.
Freeport has long been anticipating the end of open-pit mining at Grasberg, and is hoping two new underground mines, both located below existing mines, will return output to previous levels within a few years. But technical challenges have slowed the ramp-up of Deep MLZ, while the Grasberg Block Cave won’t even start producing copper until 2019, meaning total production at the Indonesian mine will be “significantly lower” in 2019 and 2020, Freeport said July 25.