Freeport (FCX) Divests Stake in Kisanfu Project for $550 Million

Freeport-McMoRan Inc.


FCX

recently announced the completion of the sale of its interests in the Kisanfu undeveloped project to a fully-owned subsidiary of China Molybdenum Co., Ltd. (“CMOC”) for $550 million. Net cash proceeds after tax amounted to around $415 million.

The Kisanfu project is located in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a large, undeveloped cobalt and copper resource discovered by the team of Freeport.

Freeport is dedicated to its strategy of focusing on an attractive portfolio of large and high-quality copper assets with established franchises in North America, South America and Indonesia.

Freeport expects to record a gain (post tax) of around $350 million related to this sale in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Shares of Freeport have increased 88.2% in the past year compared with 52.9% rise of the

industry

.

For 2020, the company anticipates consolidated sales volumes to be 3.18 billion pounds of copper. The company continues to expect gold sales volumes of 800,000 ounces for 2020. It also expects sales of 80 million pounds of molybdenum.

For the fourth quarter, Freeport expects sales volumes to be 840 million pounds of copper, 270,000 ounces of gold and 21 million pounds of molybdenum.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Freeport currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks worth considering in the basic materials space are

Bunge Limited


BG

,

BHP Group


BHP

and

Clearwater Paper Corporation


CLW

.

Bunge has a projected earnings growth rate of 43% for the current year. The company’s shares have gained around 16% in a year. It currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see


the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here


.

BHP has an expected earnings growth rate of around 32.4% for the current year. The company’s shares have gained around 17.3% in the past year. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Clearwater has an expected earnings growth rate of 1,960.9% for the current year. The company’s shares have surged around 79% in the past year. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.

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