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Contingencies and Commitments (Unaudited) | 9 Months Ended
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Sep. 30, 2019
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
Commitments and Contingencies | CONTINGENCIES AND COMMITMENTS Litigation Louisiana Parishes Coastal Erosion Cases. In September 2019, affiliates of FCX reached an agreement in principle to settle all 13 cases filed in Louisiana state courts by six south Louisiana parishes (Cameron, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. John the Baptist and Vermilion) and the parties that have intervened in the litigation, including the state of Louisiana, through the Attorney General and separately through the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources in support of the parishes’ claims, alleging that certain oil and gas exploration and production operations and sulphur mining and production operations of the FCX affiliates damaged coastal wetlands and caused significant land loss along the Louisiana coast. The maximum out-of-pocket settlement payment will be $23.5 million with the initial payment of $15 million to be paid upon execution of the settlement agreement. The initial payment will be held in trust and later deposited into a newly formed Coastal Zone Recovery Fund (the Fund) once the state of Louisiana passes enabling legislation to establish the Fund. The settlement agreement will also require the FCX affiliates to pay into the Fund twenty annual installments of $4.25 million beginning in 2023 provided the state of Louisiana passes the enabling legislation. The first two of those annual installments are conditioned only on the enactment of the enabling legislation within three years of execution of the settlement agreement, but all subsequent installments are also conditioned on the FCX affiliates receiving simultaneous reimbursement on a dollar-for-dollar basis from the proceeds of environmental credit sales generated by the Fund, resulting in the $23.5 million maximum total payment obligation. The settlement agreement is currently expected to be executed during fourth-quarter 2019 and will need to be executed by all parties, including authorized representatives of the six south Louisiana parishes originally plaintiffs in the suit and certain other non-plaintiff Louisiana parishes and the state of Louisiana. Upon execution of the settlement agreement, the FCX affiliates will be fully released and dismissed from all 13 pending cases. The agreement in principle does not include any admission of liability by FCX or its affiliates. FCX recorded a charge in third-quarter 2019 for the initial payment of $15 million, which will be paid upon execution of the settlement agreement. There were no significant updates to previously reported legal proceedings included in Note 12 of FCX’s 2018 Form 10-K, other than the asbestos and talc claims matter below, which was updated in Note 8 of FCX’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2019, and June 30, 2019, and below. Asbestos and Talc Claims. As previously disclosed, there has been a significant increase in the number of cases alleging the presence of asbestos contamination in talc-based personal care products and in cases alleging exposure to talc products that are not alleged to be contaminated with asbestos. The primary targets have been the producers of those products, but defendants in many of these cases also include talc miners. Cyprus Amax Minerals Company (CAMC), an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of FCX, and Cyprus Mines Corporation (Cyprus Mines), a wholly owned subsidiary of CAMC, are among those targets. Cyprus Mines was engaged in talc mining from 1964 until 1992 when it exited its talc business by conveying it to a third party in two related transactions. Those transactions involved (i) a transfer by Cyprus Mines of the assets of its talc business to a newly formed subsidiary that assumed all pre-sale and post-sale talc liabilities, subject to limited reservations, and (ii) a sale of the stock of that subsidiary to the third party. In 2011, the third party sold that subsidiary to Imerys Talc America (Imerys), an affiliate of Imerys S.A. Cyprus Mines has contractual indemnification rights, subject to limited reservations, against Imerys, which has historically acknowledged those indemnification obligations, and had taken responsibility for all cases tendered to it. However, on February 13, 2019, Imerys filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which triggered an immediate automatic stay under the federal bankruptcy code prohibiting any party from continuing or initiating litigation or asserting new claims against Imerys. As a result, Imerys is no longer defending the talc lawsuits against Cyprus Mines and CAMC. In addition, Imerys has taken the position that it alone owns, and has the sole right to access, the proceeds of the legacy insurance coverage of Cyprus Mines and CAMC for talc liabilities. In late March 2019, Cyprus Mines and CAMC challenged this position and obtained emergency relief from the bankruptcy court to gain access to the insurance until the question of ownership and contractual access can be decided in an adversary proceeding before the bankruptcy court, which was previously scheduled for October 2019, but is being rescheduled for early 2020. During first-quarter 2019, in a case pending at the time Imerys filed bankruptcy, a California jury entered a $29 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson and Cyprus Mines, of which approximately $2 million was attributed to Cyprus Mines. Taking advantage of the temporary access to the insurance authorized by the bankruptcy court, Cyprus Mines used the insurance to fully resolve the case. Cyprus Mines and the insurers also settled several other cases set for trial in recent months, and secured delays or dismissals in other cases. At September 30, 2019, Cyprus Mines had accrued approximately $5 million related to these cases. Multiple trials have been scheduled over the remainder of 2019 and the first half of 2020, and others may be scheduled prior to the adversary proceeding regarding the legacy insurance. FCX believes that Cyprus Mines and CAMC each has strong defenses to legal liability and that both should have access to the legacy insurance to cover defense costs, settlements and judgments, at least until the bankruptcy court decides otherwise or the insurance is exhausted. At this time, FCX cannot estimate the range of possible loss associated with these proceedings, but it does not currently believe the amount of any such losses are material to its consolidated financial statements. However, there can be no assurance that future developments will not alter this conclusion. Tax and Other Matters As discussed in Note 12 of FCX’s 2018 Form 10-K, PT-FI received assessments from the local regional tax authorities in Papua, Indonesia, for additional taxes and penalties related to surface water taxes. In May 2019, PT-FI agreed to pay 1.394 trillion rupiah ($99 million based on the exchange rate at September 30, 2019), to settle historical disputes. In August 2019, PT-FI agreed to a revised payment schedule, paying 708.5 billion rupiah ($50 million) in October 2019, with the remaining 685.5 billion rupiah ($49 million based on the exchange rate at September 30, 2019) to be paid in February 2021. As a result of the May 2019 settlement, in second-quarter 2019, PT-FI recorded charges of $28 million to production and delivery costs ($69 million was previously accrued in 2018 for this matter). In accordance with PT-FI’s special mining license (IUPK), PT-FI is also obligated to pay surface water taxes of $15 million annually, beginning in 2019, which are recognized in production and delivery costs as incurred. Refer to Note 12 for discussion of updates on PT-FI’s export duty matter and mine development cost tax matters. On September 12, 2019, PT-FI received approval from the Indonesian government to increase its export quota from approximately 180,000 dry metric tons (DMT) of concentrate to approximately 680,000 DMT for the current export period, which expires March 8, 2020. In March 2019, PT Smelting (PT-FI’s 25 percent-owned smelter and refinery in Indonesia) received an extension of its anode slimes export license through March 11, 2020.

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