Freeport-McMoRan slashes $1.3 billion in costs to stem COVID-19 fallout

(Reuters) - Freeport McMoRan Inc, the world's largest publicly traded copper producer, said on Friday it would cut its 2020 costs by 18 percent, or $1.3 billion (1.05 billion pounds) , as prices for the red metal plunge due to the global spread of COVID-19.The cost cuts involve employee layoffs, delays to expansion projects and output reductions of about 400 million pounds of copper, mostly in the company's Americas mines. The cuts also take into account a 50 percent drop in diesel prices so..