VOL. 08  |  ISSUE 4  |  Winter 2025 / 2026

In December, Cory Stevens officially took the reins of Freeport’s Americas organization, leading an operation comprised of nearly 20,000 employees in North America and South America.

With nearly three decades at Freeport, the company’s new President and Chief Operating Officer-Americas, knows the challenges ahead, but he also is confident about the future for both the company and its employees.

“I’m really excited about creating opportunities for people to develop and take on new responsibilities within the organization,” Stevens said. “When I think about my own career and the most gratifying moments I have had, I don’t think about a production record or a plant we built. I think about the people who worked on those projects and how those projects shaped their careers. That’s what really makes me tick at the end of the day.”

As he prepared to assume his new responsibilities, Stevens sat down with The Miner to discuss his vision for the organization, the future of the industry, his leadership style and lessons learned throughout his career.

As you assess your new responsibilities, what is your vision for the Americas organization over the next three to five years?

First, we must deliver results in the near term and set ourselves up for growth. We just came out of an unprecedented period of inflation and turnover. We’ve stabilized, and our Best at the Basics mantra served us well.

The problem is that isn’t enough. Ore grades and cost inputs won’t let us be successful with less than best results, so we need to have excellence in all we do. That means we set the benchmark on the equipment we operate. We design and build the most efficient plants and facilities to produce copper. We collaborate as a team and create opportunities for our people to develop and take on more responsibility. And we do this all safely and sustainably.

What are some of the key initiatives you see defining Freeport over that period?

There are several initiatives we’ve talked about over the past few years such as Leach to the Last Drop, which is really starting to hit its stride. We’re working hard on the Bagdad 2X expansion. On top of that, our Reinvent Mining effort includes multiple sub-projects, from the Integrated Remote Operating Center to applying artificial intelligence in our mine planning systems. We’re bringing in new, bigger mining equipment and building automation that goes with it. All of this is the fuel that drives our vision forward.

Your reference to Reinvent Mining was a good segue into the next question. There has been a tremendous amount of focus on that effort over the last year. How do you see that work impacting the company’s future?

Reinvent Mining is really about creating a mindset of innovation, a spirit of making every plan better. It means looking at what we do day-in and day-out and asking whether it’s delivering the value we expect. It’s also about asking whether we can apply technology to make something even better, or can we automate portions of it? I see this as ongoing. While the effort is centered around Morenci right now, it will gain traction more broadly, particularly in North America.

With all this critical work happening, how do you plan to measure success in the year ahead?

During the first year, the focus is on hard outputs. Are we meeting our mined tons? Are we meeting our milled tons? Are we producing the pounds of copper we committed to produce? Are we controlling costs? Are we managing the business instead of just explaining it? Those are the hard outcomes. But the real measure of success for me is whether we are putting people in the right roles and creating an environment, a culture, a spirit where people are empowered to take action and work as a team in a way that enables the company to deliver those outcomes.

Change at the top often comes with shifts throughout an organization. What types of change should employees in the Americas operation expect to see?

The complexities in our business keep growing. Technology can help, but it still ultimately comes down to people. To manage this rising complexity, we’re applying more technology, and that means we need more centralization now than in the past. The sites can’t manage every dimension of what we’re asking them to take on. So, we need technologies that are repeatable across multiple sites, and we need to leverage expertise in a way that exists centrally but can be scaled across multiple sites. Change can be disruptive, but we need to evolve to shape our future.

For those who haven’t had an opportunity to work with you, how would you describe your leadership style?

This is an interesting one. So, I’ve been with the company almost 29 years, and I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs. Our product is in higher demand now than ever before. I’m deeply committed to advancing our efforts to create long-term value from the resources we manage and provide for lasting job security for our employees and their families for the next generation. I’m a driver. I’m willing to embrace change, and I care about our people. I want a business model that is sustainable and not dependent on one person or a small group.

What are some of the values that are most important to you in building a strong team culture?

The top value I hold is trust, the willingness to depend on others and to be responsible for those who depend on you. That applies to everyone, whether you’re at a site or in a corporate role. I believe in dedication, resiliency and optimism, balanced with a realistic view of what we face.

As the company continues to evolve, what are some of the guiding principles you value as you evaluate new ideas and initiatives?

We want to be very targeted in how we solve our major business problems and challenges, not take a broad brush approach. Even so, there will be a lot of innovation coming at us, and we will need to sort through it. Then comes the value proposition behind each idea. How do we manage the risk, whether it’s a technology risk, an execution risk or a capital risk? Not everything will work out as planned, so we need to develop contingencies. Any first-time implementation comes with a learning curve. We also have to understand the change management that goes with it because we’re going to be impacting people’s jobs. Employees may need new skills, training or clarity on how decisions will impact their daily work. The goal is to minimize disruption as we move forward.