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"While a large number of countries around the world continue to talk about securing raw material supply, China is actually doing something about it."
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. is investigating a cyberattack that has so far had limited impact on production, the copper miner said Friday.
The incident is affecting information systems, and future operations could be impacted if the attack is prolonged, Phoenix-based Freeport said in a statement. The company is taking measures to address the situation and is working with third-party experts and law enforcement.
“Transitional solutions are being planned and implemented to secure information systems as quickly as possible,” Freeport said.
The shares declined on the news, to trade 2.5% lower at 1:08 p.m. in New York.
Freeport, the world’s top publicly traded copper miner, operates mines in Indonesia, Chile, Peru and the US. It produced 4.2 billion pounds of the wiring metal last year.
Cyberattacks have previously left metals firms scrambling to keep operations afloat. When aluminum producer Norsk Hydro ASA was hit by a ransomware attack in 2019, some 35,000 employees were locked out of the company’s network, and it had to shut down several manufacturing plants in Europe and the US. The ones still operating had to figure out how to do so without any computers. In the end, the attack would cost the company more than $60 million.
(By Jacob Lorinc, with assistance from Mark Burton)
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