Freeport's Grasberg mine, the second-largest copper and largest gold mine in the world by reserves, which has been temporarily shut down for three months. The Indonesian government wants to conduct an investigation into why a collapse that led to the deaths of 28 miners occurred last month.
It remains to be seen whether this three-month halt in production will have any effect on the copper and gold markets. It's estimated that a three-month work stoppage could take 125,000 tonnes of copper out of the global supply chain. It's possible that copper from Rio Tinto's (NYSE: RIO ) Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia can pick up some of the slack as it starts shipments later this month. In addition to that, Freeport likely has enough stock to get it through the first few weeks of the closure.
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