Freeport-McMoRan, the world’s biggest copper miner by market capitalisation, has declared a special $1 per share dividend as the price of the red metal continues to rise sharply on strong demand from manufacturing countries such as China.
In a sign of the rapid financial turnround the big mining companies have enjoyed since 2009, the US-based Freeport declared a two-for-one stock split and the unloading of $471m of excess cash to shareholders.
“They are essentially net debt zero, and they have plenty of cash both to return to shareholders and to grow the business at the same time,” said Peter Ward, mining analyst at Barclays Capital in New York, where Freeport is listed. “This is what shareholders want to see, instead of them going out and doing a potentially dilutive acquisition.”