US copper and molybdenum major Freeport is targeting mid-2030 to deliver a US$4.5 billion expansion of its Bagdad mine in Arizona – about $1 billion more than was being flagged at the start of 2026 – with the aim to double mining and milling rates and increase annual copper output to more than 181,000 tonnes.
The company said this week ongoing inflationary pressures and cost escalation could affect its latest cost estimates. It aimed to complete the project “within current cost estimates and timelines” and spend up to half the allocated $4.5 billion in 2029-2030.
The company says the expansion will make Bagdad the second largest US copper mine behind Freeport-operated Morenci in Arizona.
Freeport, which is weighing copper production growth at other sites in the US and Chile, says Bagdad’s expansion economics are supported at circa-$4/pound copper prices. The site’s 80-year-plus current reserve life (2.6 billion tonnes grading an average 0.43% copper-equivalent) underpinned doubling mining and milling rates.
As well as an additional 225 million lb of annual copper output, the Bagdad expansion would add 12Mlbpa of molybdenum. Freeport CEO Kathleen Quirk said the Bagdad investment was an important step in advancing Freeport’s US copper growth strategy.
“This low-risk brownfield project builds on Bagdad’s substantial reserve base, long operating history, existing infrastructure and experienced workforce to deliver new US copper and molybdenum production and further strengthen Freeport’s position as America’s copper champion,” she said.
Operational since 1945, Bagdad completed a conversion of more than 30 large mine haul trucks to full autonomous operation in 2025. Freeport said the proposed expansion would “leverage Bagdad’s established operating history and extensive knowledge of the orebody while incorporating modern technology to strengthen Bagdad’s production profile”.
The expansion would use “modern technology, including a fully autonomous truck fleet to support efficient increases in mining rates”.
The company hasn’t provided a public breakdown of the cost benefits of its Bagdad fleet conversion.
Group average unit net cash costs were reported as $1.65/lb of copper for the year 2025 and were expected to average $1.75/lb this year.
Freeport’s seven managed US copper operations produced 1.3 billion lb copper and 34Mlb moly at $3.05/lb unit net cash costs for copper in 2025 compared with $3.11/lb in 2024.
The company said Bagdad’s new economies of scale, technology and molybdenum by-product credits would produce an “approximate 20% reduction in long-term unit net cash costs”.
The expansion would create “more than 4000 direct and indirect jobs during construction and thousands of long-term employment opportunities”.
