Jim Bob Moffett, Co-Founder of Copper Giant Freeport, Dies at 82
(Bloomberg) -- James Robert “Jim Bob” Moffett, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Freeport-McMoRan Inc., has died. He was 82.
No cause was given in the statement released by the world's largest listed copper producer.
Moffett, a legendary wildcatter and geologist whose credits include the Grasberg copper deposit in Indonesia, built Freeport into a giant of the mining industry during his two decades as CEO and three decades as chairman. On his watch, the company rode an unprecedented commodities boom, expanding to challenge Codelco as the world's biggest copper miner.
“Jim Bob was a legend and visionary in the natural resource industry,” Chairman Gerald Ford and CEO Richard Adkerson said in the statement. His “passion and relentless drive as an explorationist led to the discovery and development of world class oil and gas and mineral deposits over his long career.”
Moffett graduated with a Bachelor of Science with special honors in geology from the University of Texas at Austin, where he played football on an athletic scholarship, and later received a Master of Science degree in geology from Tulane University.
He went on to co-found McMoRan Exploration Co. in 1969, later merging with Freeport Minerals Co. in 1981 to form Freeport-McMoRan. He served as CEO from 1984 to 2003 and chairman from 1984 to 2015. The company's assets include its flagship mine at Grasberg, as well as copper and molybdenum operations in the Americas.
Moffett stepped down as executive chairman in 2015, as a commodity-price boom went bust, and was named Chairman Emeritus and consultant to the Freeport board.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Signature Play: The Classic Cocktail Is Dead. Or Is It?
Classic cocktails are disappearing from India's cocktail menus. But they're still being ordered, taught to bartenders and borrowed from. So, who's really having the last drink?
-
A New Samvat Wishlist: Inclusive Prosperity And Human Development
India has strengthened its economic foundations through infrastructure, digital access and enterprise. Its next growth chapter must deepen productivity, create better livelihoods and widen participation in prosperity.
-
Love, Sex Aur Dhokha: The Audacious Plot To Spy On Jensen Huang
A Taipei dinner, a Singapore chip buyer and a suspected Chinese asset: inside the alleged spy operation that got close to NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.
-
Ten Things I Learnt This Samvat
Patience can be a trap. Cheap stocks can stay cheap. Leverage can wipe you out. What did Samvat 2082 teach us? Niraj Shah writes on 10 lessons from the year gone by.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
