Freeport-McMoRan, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Freeport-McMoran second quarter conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question during the Q&A session, press star 1 on your touchtone phone. If you require assistance during the conference, please press star 0. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. David Joint, Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Regina, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Freeport conference call. Earlier this morning, FCX reported its second quarter 2024 operating and financial results. A copy of today's release with supplemental schedules and slides is available on our website, fcx.com. Today's conference call is being broadcast live on the internet. Anyone may listen to the call by accessing our website homepage and clicking on the webcast link. In addition to analysts and investors, the financial press has been invited to listen to today's call. A replay of the webcast will be available on our website later today. Before we begin our comments, we'd like to remind everyone that today's press release and certain of our comments in the call include non-GAAP measures and forward-looking statements, and actual results may differ materially. Please refer to the cautionary language in our press release and slides into the risk factors described in our FCC filings, all of which are available on our website. Also on the call with me today are Richard Ackerson, Chairman of the Board, Kathleen Quirk, President and Chief Executive Officer, Marie Robertson, Executive Vice President and CFO, and other senior members of our management team. Richard will make a few opening remarks. Kathleen will review our slide materials. And then we will open up the call for questions. Richard?

Thank you, David. Thank you all for joining us today. Well, we've seen quite a couple of months of volatility in the markets. I was on CNBC right when copper hit $5 for the first time ever, and I had big smiles on my face. Now, the reality of the copper markets have shown up. And I just want to say a couple of comments about it. Many of you have heard me say for a long time that copper moved from a cyclical metal that it had been in years past to one that's been driven more by episodic events. In China, its demand had been growing recently and has set records even in the face of poor performance in certain sectors, most notably the property segment. Recently, demand has been softening in other sectors. Credit markets in China have been soft. The high prices led to the stocking. There's been a very tight concentrate market which persists. TCs and RCs are at record low levels. That's brought a lot of scrap to the marketplace. The government incentivized scrap for a period of time. as a result was the destocking, the softening demand, global inventories have risen, and that has triggered macro trading in commodities, particularly after the disappointment that the third plenum didn't result in a clear statement of incentivizing the economy in China. This simply won't last. There's limits to the stocking. China will respond to its economy. There's underlying strength there. And we're very confident that this will improve over time. In fact, they've taken the first step with the recent interest rate cut. Underlying all of this is really the fundamentals of the global copper marketplace. The world is getting more and more electrified with connectivity, with dealing with carbon emissions. The challenge is there, but that's a fact that the world has to deal with. A1 and, you know, Jeff Curry recently talked about the importance of increased defense spending, and that creates another element of demand. Supply changes continue. Supply challenges continue and in certain cases are growing. And so as we look forward, our strategy is based on a fundamentally positive outlook about long-term copper demand and the reality of developing new supplies to meet that demand. You know, it was really something to see copper at $5. And I'll tell you, we're going to see it again. I want to make one quick comment to recognize our team. for the great work we've done in reaching the commissioning of our new smelter in Indonesia. This was a major project, the world's largest single-line smelter. Construction is essentially complete. We posted a new video on our website last evening. I encourage you all to watch it just to see the size and scale of this new world-class facility. It's really something to visit it and seeing just the extent of the facility. This was a key commitment we made to the government of Indonesia in 2018 when we resolved to reach a global resolution of the issues that had been under discussion for so many years. It's of strategic importance for our business interests in Indonesia for the long term by becoming a fully integrated producer there with our mining operations, PTFI will now be able to apply for extension of its operations for the long term, which will really enhance the benefits of all stakeholders, the government, the people of Papua, our employees, Freeport, and all shareholders, and our partner, MindID, the state-owned company. The project has been in works for several years. in a world that was challenged during this period of time by COVID and inflationary factors that have been evident in so many projects around our copper industry. It's really an accomplishment by our team to bring this in on time and with reasonable budget spending on it. It's quite a facility. Take a look at the video. We are looking forward to getting our extension and then developing our plans to maximize the value of this resource over its life and not have any time limit of 2041 facing us. So we're really encouraged by it. And again, our team just did a tremendous job there. Kathleen, I'll turn it over to you.