Historic Louisiana

Freeport Sulphur Company has been in the
sulphur business longer than any other
company. In 1933 it undertook a project then
considered virtually impossible—developing
a mine in the middle of the delta marshes near
the mouth of the Mississippi River. Not only
did the Freeport engineers succeed, they
designed and constructed the mine and all
support facilities in just twelve months. The
Grande Ecaille mine produced more than 40
million long-tons of sulphur during its 40-
plus years of operation, and transformed the
economy of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana.
Many important sulphur-mining projects
followed, including the Garden Island Bay
Project, also in Plaquemines Parish, and the
offshoot Grand Isle, Caminada, and mammoth
Main Pass 299 mines. The Main Pass reserve,
discovered in 1988, remains the largest
sulphur reserve in North America. McMoRan
Exploration ceased sulphur-mining operations
there in the year 2000, after sulphur mining
became uneconomic amid low commodity
prices. This marked the close of an important
chapter in Louisiana’s history, but enabled
McMoRan to focus its operation on potential
high returns from expanding oil and gas
operations in the Gulf of Mexico. Today MMR
is poised to capitalize on the vast opportunities
in the region, through an aggressive
exploration program on the Gulf of Mexico
shelf. MMR has acquired large blocks of
exploration lease areas in the region and is
using “structural geology,” augmented by 3-D
mapping technology, to evaluate the
hydrocarbon potential. Several discoveries
were logged in 2000, and many drilling
projects with significant promise are underway.
In the 1960’s, when Freeport’s sulphur
business in Louisiana was in its heyday, the
Company began diversifying into other
minerals and metals. Freeport’s chief geologist,
Forbes Wilson, came across Dutch field notes
describing untapped copper potentials in the
mountains of New Guinea. He convinced
directors and bankers to fund an expedition
there, to confirm the initial reports that had
been filed away since the 1930’s. An arduous
trek into virtually untouched mountainous
terrain confirmed the discovery of the Ertsberg
(Dutch for Ore Mountain). Freeport became
the first foreign investor in the young
Indonesian nation. Subsequent exploration
yielded many additional ore strikes, including
the massive Grasberg copper-gold discovery in
1988. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold was
spun off from Freeport-McMoRan Inc. in 1989
and became separately listed on the New York
Stock Exchange.
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold is the
world’s lowest cost copper producer and one of
the world’s largest producers of copper and
gold. The company’s Grasberg mine in
Indonesia remains the world’s largest single
gold deposit, and one of the largest copper
deposits. In 2001 alone, the Grasberg complex
is expected to produce ores containing 1.6
billion pounds of copper and 3.1 million
ounces of gold. The operation in the province
of Papua, Indonesia employs more than 13,000
workers, nearly 25 percent of who are
indigenous Papuans. Many of the engineering
and planning activities associated with the
Grasberg operations take place in New
Orleans, providing a significant impact to the
local economy.
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Above: Grande Isle, No. 3 Platform.
Below: Lake Pelto.
SHARING THE HERITAGE
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