Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) will suspend the quarterly cash dividend of $0.05 per share previously planned for May 1, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting global economic uncertainties.

In its press release announcing the dividend suspension the company states that the declaration and payment of future dividends is at the discretion of the Board and will depend on FCX’s financial results, cash requirements, global economic conditions and other factors deemed relevant by the Board.

Freeport-McMoRan reinstated a quarterly dividend of 5 cents per share in 2018. The dividend was also suspended by the copper producer in 2015 and 2009.

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. is an international mining company with headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. The company operates geographically diverse assets with significant proven and probable reserves of copper, gold and molybdenum. FCX is one of the world's largest publicly traded copper producers. The company's portfolio of assets includes the Grasberg minerals district in Indonesia, one of the world's largest copper and gold deposits; and significant mining operations in North America and South America, including the large-scale Morenci minerals district in Arizona and the Cerro Verde operation in Peru. Freeport-McMoRan Inc., formerly known as Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., was established in 1988 following the discovery of the Grasberg copper and gold deposit in Papua, Indonesia, when FCX’s former parent company, then known by the New York Stock Exchange trading symbol of “FTX”, sold 20 percent of the company in an initial public offering, or IPO.