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Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold is planning big acquisitions in the oil and gas sector, a multibillion-dollar move that would take the US mining group back to its roots as an energy producer, according to several people familiar with the matter.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold will increase daily ore output at its Deep Ore Zone Grasberg Mine in Indonesia to 80,000 tonnes per day by the end of 2013. This will be a 60% increase from the 2012 rate of around 50,000 tpd, which will help bring 2013 copper sales to 1.1 billion lb.

An eleventh-hour adjustment for copper will allow miners such as Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold and Newmont Mining to continue shipments. The regulation will allow exports of copper concentrate above or equal to 15% metal content. About 66 companies that have plans to process domestically will be allowed to export as well, Jero Wacik, energy and mines minister, told local reporters in Indonesia.

He said there has been a reorientation of China’s economy over the past year towards internal consumption, but added that infrastructure investment in China remains a major part

Sumitomo Metal Mining (SMM) and Sumitomo Corp have approved an expansion of production at the Cerro Verde Copper Mine in Peru operated by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold

The consensus among analysts is that the copper market could show a surplus of about 200,000-300,000 tonnes in 2014, after recording a narrower surplus this year. In the context of the 21 million-tonne refined copper market, the surplus is relatively modest, and it could be offset quickly if there is a further deterioration in the supply of scrap, Freeport McMoRan svp of sales and marketing Javier Targhetta told Metal Bulletin in Shanghai.

Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. and Codelco, the world’s two largest copper producers, said China’s plans to curb its economy threaten to reduce demand for the metal after prices slumped 15 percent in two months. The copper market will be “volatile” for as much as another year after China took measures to cool its property market, Codelco Chief Executive Officer Diego Hernandez said yesterday in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. The Asian nation is a “risk to the world’s market place in the near term,” Freeport CEO Richard Adkerson said in an interview.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold's optimism about copper and molybdenum markets has prompted the company to undertake several major development projects including re-starts of mines shuttered or projects shelved since 2008 due to the global economic crisis.

Freeport said the project will ramp up from producing about 250 million pounds of copper a year now to 290 million pounds next year.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold CEO Richard Adkerson says the strong performance of copper in the market place last year and the economic growth in China have created an encouraging outlook for copper this year.

Mining giant Freeport-McMoRan has bought the long-closed Twin Buttes Mine site near Sahuarita for $200 million and may mine it once again, company officials said. Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. bought 8,900 acres of the open-pit mine

Here is a summary of its plans to step up production at some U.S. operations.

QUESTION: In addition to China, where are you seeing improving demand?ANSWER: "It is more in the electrical side of the business...both here in the U.S. and in Europe. You know, there's some ... parts of the economy, as you can see automobile production is one thing, that is generating some business for people."When we look at the residential, commercial construction business, it is weak but bottomed out."

With positive economic readings and mineral prices holding returning, Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold said it is hiring more than 600 workers in Arizona as it ramps up production at its mines. About 400 workers are being hired at the company’s Morenci Mine in Greenlee County where the company will increase its production to 700,000 tons per day, from 500,000 tons per day.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc (FCX.N) sees a tighter global supply base for copper and strong demand from China and the developing world favoring the industrial metal's longer-term outlook.

Freeport McMoran, the world’s biggest publicly traded copper producer, has predicted strong markets that could push its cash flow as high as $9bn this year compared with $6.3bn in 2010.