The tragic death of a contractor at Cerro Verde in April reinforces the need for every employee to constantly be aware of their surroundings and assess the risks of any job, especially when circumstances change unexpectedly, Josh Olmsted, President and Chief Operating Officer-Americas, said during a virtual town hall recently.
“We lost a family member,” Olmsted said of the death of Miguel Ytalaque Castillo, a contractor who died while working on a cement pour at Cerro Verde April 24. “It’s our worst nightmare.”
Nearly 2,200 company employees across the Americas watched Olmsted’s online town hall. Olmsted was joined by Khaled Sunna, Senior Vice President-Engineering, who discussed the status of growth plans at various company sites.
The fatal incident still is under investigation. What is known is Ytalaque Castillo was part of a construction crew pouring cement into forms for the site’s new in-pit crush and convey system. Concrete was being pumped from a truck through a boom and into a flexible hose used to disburse it into the forms. As the pour neared the top, the concrete flow stopped, then suddenly surged again. That caused the boom and hose to whiplash, striking Ytalaque Castillo in the head.
The tragic incident illustrates the dangers of taking a job for granted, Olmsted said. It is easy to get complacent and fail to identify the risks. That’s particularly true when something about the work changes unexpectedly. That is when to reassess the situation, mitigate any risks and proceed only when it is safe to do so.
The devastating incident was a stark reminder of the importance of stopping work when an aspect of the job changes, Olmsted said during the hour-long event. “We need to ensure that everybody takes that to heart and doesn’t take those things for granted,” he said. “It’s now incumbent on all of us is to take the learnings that we get from this event and put everything in place to ensure that it never happens again.”
Recordable rate down
There were encouraging improvements in safety during the first quarter of 2025. The total recordable incident rate was down substantially from the fourth quarter of 2024. However, there was an unacceptable spike in potentially fatal and actionable events, Olmsted said.
“We can't continue to be OK with the number of high-energy events that we're seeing,” he said.
Production fell slightly short of plans in the first quarter in the Americas, in part because of unplanned down time at various sites, which is a continuous challenge, Olmsted said.
In response to a question about how to maximize cost efficiency, Olmsted cited developing and executing on rigorous maintenance and reliability plans, a topic he touched on multiple times during the event.
Unplanned repairs typically take longer and cost more to fix. They also disrupt production. Everyone who works at Freeport needs to take ownership when there is unplanned downtime and assess what they can do to prevent them, Olmsted said.
“We can't just accept it and move on,” Olmsted said. “We’ve got to really work to eliminate it.”
Autonomous project expanding
Several questions from employees involved workplace issues, including how changing technology such as autonomous haul trucks being tested at Bagdad will affect their jobs.
Bagdad now has 15 autonomous haul trucks operating. The company is committed to ensuring no haul truck driver in Bagdad will lose their job because of the switch to autonomous trucks. Those wishing to stay with the company can retrain for other jobs or transfer to other sites.
Embracing innovation and technology to improve mining efficiency is an “opportunity to supercharge the work that we already do,” Olmsted said.
“I wouldn’t be concerned about job security in general,” he said. “If you don’t embrace technology, if you don’t embrace innovation, if you don’t embrace the tools that are available today to help drive and improve the business, I think that’s the risk.”
Sunna said the company is well positioned for long-term growth at its existing properties. Repairs to the new PT Freeport Indonesia smelter in Manyar, damaged in a fire in October 2024, are nearing completion and the facility is ramping up to begin production soon.
Plans for future expansions are progressing at Bagdad and Safford in Arizona, and at El Abra in Chile.
“On the growth project side, we have a long and promising list of growth opportunities,” Sunna said.