In short: Won't buy it: the default name institutions throw money at when they turn bullish on copper (host: ~36× P/E), "not even a company I thought of buying at all … I don't think it's a quality producer." Aurelion prefers a smaller, overlooked producer in its earning phase.
Freeport is the stock most institutions buy first when they turn bullish on copper, which the host says has pushed it to about 36 times earnings. Boyer says he never considered buying it: "I don't think it's a quality producer." He compares it to momentum traders buying the first uranium name they think of after a viral tweet.
He prefers a copper producer in what he calls its "earning phase": it has finished spending heavily to build its mines, so spending is now falling while output is flowing. Each rise in the copper price then turns into free cash flow instead of being swallowed by construction bills.
1:00:53So, I know that they are buying a lot of Freeport, but it's not even a company that I thought of buying at all. I don't think it's a, don't want to hate on them, but I don't think it's a quality producer. I think it's just, it's like if you're a uranium producer, people are bullish on uranium because Musk tweeted uranium and the company, the first one you're looking at, it's called uranium taker UA and they buy it you know, it's almost like, I see it would be the same with Freeport. On our end we have a company that is a really high
In short: Passing mention — one of the majors "working there" in the Domes region (and Kevin Bonel's former employer as its belt exploration manager); a potential acquirer, not a view.
33:34map right in the middle of a camp like the Domes region, what does that create? It creates the perfect storm for M&A. And you don't only have Barrick, First Quantum, Ivanhoe. Think about all the groups that are there. China Molybdenum sits just above us with Tenke Fungurume, another amazing deposit, but you have Freeport-McMoRan working there, you have Rio Tinto working there, you have Anglo American working there, you have BHP around, Glencore around. Every major copper producer on the planet is in this region, and most of those groups
In short: Arizona benchmark: Copper World + Cactus (~226k t/yr pro forma) would make Hudbay's Arizona business the third-largest copper district in North America, behind only Grupo México and Freeport.
5:00That would put the company's Arizona business behind only Grupo México and Freeport in Arizona again. So this is both in Arizona, highlighting the scale of its US growth potential. And with Arizona what you want to keep in mind is that the company sees Arizona as a major integrated copper hub combining Copper World near Tucson and then you can see Cactus near Phoenix, and benefiting from an established mining infrastructure.
In short: Referenced as one of the top global copper producers Anglo Teck would sit alongside (with BHP).
2:35And if you look at comparing to others, they are getting a pretty good exposure to copper. Look at just Vale or Rio or Glencore or BHP. So, this is a pretty good mix. Now, Anglo Teck would become a top five global copper producer, giving it major scale. Alongside, you have, of course, BHP, Freeport-McMoRan, and it would be one of the largest copper-focused producers.
In short: Grasberg's production decline is one of the short-term supply hits — slower to return to full output "than the market was expecting," but it will go away at some point. No view on the stock.
2:10years. So we're seeing aging infrastructure, declining grade, more expensive mining operations to extract the same material. That's underlying that. And then on top of that, I think we've also seen on the supply side some specific shorter term issues, particularly from Grasberg where we've seen a decline in production for specific issues that that mine has had.
In short: Named among the majors who "have no choice but to buy some juniors": only four or five near-surface, high-grade copper deposits are not already owned by majors.
32:57There's about four or five of them that we're aware of that are not owned by majors. So the majors have no choice, whether it's your Freeport, your Rio, your BHP, whoever you are, you're going to have no choice but to buy some juniors. You have to buy them. So buy assets. Again, I love grade and I love size.
In short: Simpson's final trade, and a new position rather than an add: "I would use the recent pullback in copper to initiate a position in Freeport-McMoRan." The framing is the dip itself — copper's pullback as the entry into a metal the desk has been constructive on for months (Terranova named the same stock as his final trade three sessions earlier, on Sep 8, with an "into the 80s" price objective).
Freeport is one of the world's biggest copper miners, so its profits swing with the copper price. Copper is the metal the electricity build-out runs on — data centres, grids, motors — which is why the desk has been constructive on it for months.
Simpson is not chasing strength; he is using a pullback in the copper price to open a brand-new position. The distinction matters: an "initiate" after a dip is a deliberate entry-discipline trade, not an add to a winner.
In short: The purest copper play and best performer since 2020, strong balance sheet, dividend focus — but limited diversification, Grasberg mudslide execution/concentration risk, lowest credit (BBB−), and at $5/$6/$7 copper with $6 base "doesn't look as cheap… I don't see that much of a room for valuation."
Freeport is the closest thing to a pure copper company, which is why its shares did best as copper rose. That same focus is the risk: little to fall back on if copper weakens, heavy reliance on its giant Grasberg mine in Indonesia (hit by a mudslide), and the lowest credit rating of the group — still investment grade, but just one notch above "junk." Modelling copper at $5, $6 and $7 a pound, he finds it fairly priced with little room for error, so it's not a buy today.
14:59lag a bit but they are the cheapest nonetheless. And then Freeport. So it's the purest copper play with a strong balance sheet and dividend focus again. Vale is doing nice buybacks by the way. So they've always focused on buybacks. Vale and Glencore is buyback. The other three are dividends.
In short: Terranova's final trade, with a price objective attached: "I like Freeport-McMoRan to move into the 80s." It is the single-name expression of the commodity view he lays out in the energy segment — "copper prices moving towards highs, agriculture which we talked about last week, it's all of it. The commodity trade is probably arguably the strongest trade in the market" — with gold explicitly the one part of the complex that has paused ("gold's come back a little bit as well").
Freeport-McMoRan is one of the largest copper miners in the world, so its shares track the copper price with leverage — a modest move in the metal produces a larger move in the stock, because mining costs are broadly fixed.
Terranova's final trade is Freeport "to move into the 80s," and the reasoning sits in the energy segment rather than the pick itself: copper is moving toward its highs, agricultural prices are rising, and in his words the commodity trade is arguably the strongest trade in the market right now. Notably he excludes gold from that, saying it has "come back a little bit" — so this is a call on the industrial metals, not on hard assets in general.
In short: A disclosed add — Kevin Simpson "bought more Freeport and Agnico Eagle" and puts it inside a running theme: "this is really consistent with our theme… we began it last week adding CF Industries, really looking at hard commodities… there's been a pullback in the metals. I really think that's an opportunity to add to them… they're inexpensive and I feel like anytime you get a pullback here, it makes sense to add." Copper is the leg he likes best, and for a demand reason rather than a monetary one: "why I like copper maybe even a little bit more than gold in these two trades is that you've got an application… with respect to electrification, if you believe in the data center buildout… someday electric vehicles coming back into vogue." He also names his own invalidator (see AEM).
Freeport is one of the largest copper miners. Simpson bought more of it, and the reason he gives for preferring copper to gold is the useful part.
Gold is bought mostly as a store of value — it does not get consumed, so its price depends on what people want to hold. Copper gets used up: it goes into electrical wiring, into the grid, into data centres, into electric vehicles. So a copper position is a bet on physical demand you can point at, whereas a gold position is a bet on sentiment and interest rates. If you believe the data-centre build-out continues — which the same panel spent the first half of the hour arguing — copper is the more direct way to own it.
His discipline here is also worth copying: he adds on a pullback in an existing position rather than initiating something new because it is going up.
In short: Held but not being added: the copper book is "split between Southern Copper and Freeport… we haven't added much to that because copper's at a high." Supply-demand keeps him long — "we'll keep them" — but copper is "in a different mold than gold and silver… they stayed at that high and then made new highs."
Freeport is one of the world's largest copper miners and the name most investors reach for when they want copper exposure. Oakley owns it — but this is a hold, not a buy, and the distinction is the whole point.
His discipline is symmetrical: he bought gold and silver aggressively because they had fallen and the speculative money was gone; copper did the opposite, staying at its highs and then making new ones. "We haven't added much to that because copper's at a high… supply demand wise, we'll keep them." Long-term he likes the copper story; he simply won't pay up for it today.
31:26— All right. What about copper? Because copper's had a great run. I think you also hold Freeport-McMoRan, and I'm assuming that's primarily a copper — portfolio. It's one of those. We split it between Southern Copper and Freeport. Those two. A lot of people always talk about Freeport, but Southern Copper is really good company.
In short: Referenced, not a pick — the third major named at the White House mining event. It sits inside the copper argument rather than carrying a view of its own: even fully financed and permitted, the mines the AI and defense build-outs require "don't exist," and a large new mine needs a thousand people on site for 12–18 months before it produces anything.
33:51— Exactly. Nixon. Yeah. So there was a White House press conference last week about mining, hard rock mining. The White House invited all these executives from the mining industry, some of the biggest mining companies in the US as well as the largest ones in the world Rio Tinto, Newmont, Freeport, etc., etc.
In short: Appears as the funding partner that de-risks Amarc, not as a call on the stock: "they have adult supervision in the part of Freeport McMoRan… joint venture partners, one of the most important copper producers in the world." The transferable point is what a major-company JV is worth to a junior — "Diane is backed up by a technical team of probably 200 geoscientists who aren't on Amarc's payroll."
33:59It's important to note, too, that they have adult supervision in the part of Freeport McMoRan. — I had no idea. — [laughter] — They're joint venture partners, one of the most important copper producers in the world. — I did not know that. Wow. — It's important because that means that Diane is backed up by a technical team of probably 200 geoscientists who aren't on Amarc's payroll.
In short: Copper hit a record high yesterday and the XME had its best week since March 2022. Harrington owns Freeport and Rio: "just like Steph said, all roads lead to copper. Everywhere you look, it's copper. And it's quietly risen to $6.60 this year. Freeport's up 30% year to date — but here's the thing, it's still only trading at 18 times earnings and it still has a 6% free-cash-flow yield. So that's why I think the wind could stay at the back, because they haven't gotten silly." Talkington's technical caution: FCX "got called away from me" (assigned on a covered call) and "does have a lot of resistance right at this level."
Copper hit a record high, and Jenny Harrington owns Freeport, the largest listed copper miner. "All roads lead to copper. Everywhere you look, it's copper" — electrification, EVs, the grid, and every data center needs enormous quantities of it, and copper has quietly climbed to $6.60 a pound this year.
What makes it still investable after a 30% run is that the valuation hasn't inflated: 18 times earnings and a 6% free-cash-flow yield, meaning the company generates cash equal to 6% of its market value each year. "That's why I think the wind could stay at the back, because they haven't gotten silly." Bryn Talkington's technical caution: she had her shares called away on a covered call, and the stock faces heavy resistance right here.
In short: Sethi's cyclical/commodity analogy — "whether it's a Freeport or a Micron," the supply isn't catching up — used to contrast commodity cyclicals with the reinvest-into-R&D compounders like Apple/NVIDIA. Referenced, not a fresh pick.
In short: Harrington's copper play — "copper's different" from gold: endless demand as we build data centers and EVs, a "clear-cut" case that copper miners are "terribly productive and make lots of cash." Baruch also increased copper miners: copper in a supply deficit that widens over time, "miners there set up pretty well."
Freeport is one of the world's biggest copper miners. Jenny Harrington draws a sharp line between copper and gold: unlike gold, copper has a "clear-cut" cash-flow case because demand is relentless — every data center and every electric car needs a lot of it — so the miners are highly profitable and that's easy to model. She'd even rather own a copper miner than gold outright.
Bill Baruch agrees on copper specifically: he sees a supply deficit that widens over time, which sets the miners up well. So copper is the one part of the metals trade both the fundamentalist and the trader like.
In short: Ranks it a 4 and owns it — "crossing myself" because the 4 assumes they repair the significant damage at Grasberg (Indonesia) and keep handling "the extortionate demands of the Indonesian government."
Freeport is one of the world's biggest copper miners, owned by Rule and graded a 4 — but he's "crossing himself" because that grade assumes two things go right at its crown-jewel Grasberg mine in Indonesia: that recent operational damage gets repaired, and that the company keeps managing a grasping Indonesian government. It's a high-quality, high-leverage way to play rising copper, with a single big country-risk attached.
35:22Wonderful opportunities, okay capital allocators, lots and lots and lots of political risk here. Not for the faint of heart. Yes, I own it. — All right. Next one, Freeport, one of the bigger names in the copper space, FCX on the New York Stock Exchange. Looks like — I have FCX as a four. Yes, I own it.
In short: The clean copper comp for Glencore — trades ~25× vs Glencore's ~14×, illustrating how the coal stub undervalues Glencore's copper.
39:03of at a point where it's really difficult to ignore. — So, to your point, Glencore, even though it's run up trading around This is really simplistic, but 14 times forward earnings. If I compare it to like a Freeport, is that a Is that the right comparison? — Exactly. So, if — Yes, 25 times. — Exactly.
In short: The other big copper name cited (up 25% YTD) — same 5-year no-brainer setup, same near-term caution as the market is "overwhelmingly bullish" and the buying has already happened.
Freeport is the other big copper name Rule cites for the same five-year "no-brainer" copper-shortage thesis. Same near-term caution applies: it's already run up, the market is "overwhelmingly bullish," and the easy buying has already happened — so the next few months could be bumpier than the consensus expects.
35:31One more: copper. Up 12% on the year; BHP up 35%, Freeport up 25%. What's your view? Over 5 years, it's an absolute no-brainer — we've underinvested in copper for 30 years and it's a very long-lead-time item. In the near term I'm concerned: higher rates make it more expensive to carry copper inventories and speculators (particularly in China) are being forced to sell. Higher oil prices act like a tax, taking liquidity out of the economy and possibly tipping the world into recession. So while I'm an incredible bull over 5 years, the next 6 months could be more challenging than people think — the market is overwhelmingly bullish, and that buying has already occurred (Goldman won't publish a bullish copper report if they're not long).
In short: Largest US copper producer; made copper at ~$1.75 when copper was $3 — at $6 it's "swimming in cash."
Freeport is the largest US copper miner. Rule's point is about profit margins: it can produce a pound of copper for roughly $1.75, so it did fine when copper sold for $3, and at $6 copper it is "swimming in cash." It's the cleanest way to bet on his core thesis — that decades of underinvestment guarantee a copper shortage and high prices.
24:38uh over time uh if the copper price gets high enough, we'll find a way to use other materials to substitute for some of the uses in copper and people will figure out how to fabricate goods that are made with copper more efficiently. But in the near term, none of those are options. How do the miners benefit? So, when the price goes from£3, $3 per pound to $6 a pound and how does it work for — miners? At uh at $3 a pound, uh if you were Freeport, as an example, the largest US copper producer, you were probably making copper for a buck 75.
In short: "America's copper champion" — the large-cap to own if you're positive on copper (world's #2 mine in Indonesia + US resources + a tariff option). He's a copper bull ("lone voice"), though near-term tariff hoarding has artificially tightened the US market; "my job is identifying great entry points."
Freeport is the big US copper miner — it calls itself "America's copper champion." It runs the world's second-largest copper mine in Indonesia, holds large copper deposits inside the US, and has an extra kicker if tariffs push up the US copper price. If you believe copper is going higher, it's the obvious large-company way to play it.
He's a copper bull — admittedly a "lone voice" — because new copper is genuinely hard to come by: existing mines are slowly depleting, there's no cheap new technology to unlock more (you can't frack for copper), and demand keeps rising from electric cars, wind and solar, and the power grid. One caveat on timing: tariff fears have caused the US to hoard copper, artificially propping up the price for now, so he stresses that buying at the right entry point matters.
46:15Well, if I was positive on copper, what stock would I buy? So, in large cap land in the US, the America's copper champion, not my words, theirs, is Freeport. They operate the world's second largest copper mine in Indonesia. They've got a host of copper resources sitting here in the US. They've got a bit of an option on tariffs from that. So, part of my job is not identifying great companies. It's identifying great entry points.
In short: "You're good with Freeport" — a core copper name in his $10-copper thesis (a long-term hold-and-forget).
Freeport is one of the world's largest copper miners and a core name in his bet that copper has to climb toward $10 a pound. He treats it as a buy-and-forget holding: "you're good with Freeport."
56:03Um should he switch to something else? I think you're good with Ivanhoe. Uh I think you're good with Hudbay. I think you're good with Freeport. Um do yourself a favor, take it off your screen and look at it in 5 years. Okay, he's nodding. He's going to do that. Okay, now Talen, home-run, um you brought it back as a pro pick.
In short: Supply-crunch exhibit — operates Indonesia's Grasberg (world's #2 copper, #1 gold); its largest producing block is offline and not expected to restart until Q2.
In short: Supply-crack exhibit — Grasberg (world's #2 copper mine) still under force majeure on block-cave operations after a fatal mudslide; no restart until later this quarter.
Freeport's Grasberg is the second-biggest copper mine on earth, and its main underground section is shut down after a deadly mudslide — it won't restart for months. That's another huge chunk of supply offline, which Prins cites to show the shortage is getting worse, not better.
In short: Copper name in the hard-asset basket money is rotating into.
Freeport-McMoRan is a major copper miner. Copper is essential for electricity and the power grid, which ties directly into the electrification and AI-power buildout.
He includes it in the hard-asset basket money is rotating into — a real-asset producer positioned for the commodity bull market he expects.
16:48Companies — your Glencores, your BHP's, your Freeport-McMoRan, your companies that own lots of assets. Cuz in that stagflationary world, those types of stocks outperform. — Yeah, those types of stocks outperform like the Mag 7 or just growth stocks. — Okay, back to the Mag 7.
In short: Her Dec-2024 "Copper Decade" pick — copper as the cornerstone of the AI revolution and energy transition; the new bill paves the way for copper projects to be approved and streamlined, adding structural support to the thesis.
Freeport is one of the world's biggest copper miners. Prins recommended it back in 2024 as her "Copper Decade" play — the idea that copper is the metal everything in the AI build-out and energy transition runs on (wiring, data centers, the grid), so demand keeps climbing. This week's bill matters to it because it adds copper to the fast-track federal list, which means new U.S. copper projects can get permitted and funded faster — a regulatory wind at the back of the whole copper trade.
In short: Reference: the Grasberg block-cave collapse (Sept 8) and Indonesia's history of forcing Freeport to process ore in-country are cited as examples of Indonesian resource-nationalism / event risk — the backdrop for a potential nickel crackdown.
In short: Reference, not a stance: Freeport's force majeure at the Grasberg mine is cited as the recent copper headline that copper has "oddly gone invisible" behind — a supply event the market is under-reacting to.
In short: Resource-nationalism illustration in the copper theme: Indonesia forced Freeport to build a smelter in-country ("we're going to capture more value… you're not just going to take that mineral and run away") — the south now sets the terms, raising the cost and time to bring new copper to market.
Freeport-McMoRan is one of the largest copper miners. Here it's an illustration rather than a pitch: Indonesia told Freeport it couldn't simply ship its ore abroad to be refined — it had to build a smelter inside Indonesia so the country could "capture more value." This is "resource nationalism," and it's spreading (Chile is doing similar things with lithium).
The takeaway feeds his copper thesis: resource-rich countries in the global south now set tougher terms, which raises the cost and lengthens the time to bring new metal to market — tightening supply even further and supporting copper prices for years.
1:27:47big product that comes from Chile — the Government of Chile says any new lithium project, we're going to own part of the economics in that project. And Indonesia and Freeport-McMoRan — the copper discovery that they have in development, they were planning on taking the copper someplace else to have refined, Indonesia said, no, no, no, you're going to build a smelter here in Indonesia, we're going to capture more value in that process, and therefore you're not just going to take that mineral and run away with it. So we're
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Verbatim excerpts from the public transcripts (auto-pulled at each mention's timestamp, lightly cleaned). Timestamps link into the video; "source page" opens that commentator's full analysis at this row. Click a mention's header line to expand it (one open at a time). For personal study — not investment advice.