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Miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc reported a quarterly profit on Thursday that beat analysts’ estimates, helped by higher copper prices and an increase in demand for the metal.

Copper prices have been rising this year, with analysts optimistic that demand for the metal will increase with the recovery of the global economy and due to its use in the renewable energy sector.

“The outlook for the copper market is extraordinarily positive”, Freeport chief executive officer Richard Adkerson said.

The company’s average realised price for a pound of copper rose about 40 percent, while production of the metal increased about 17 percent to 987 million recoverable pounds.

Freeport earlier this month broke ground in construction of one of the world’s biggest copper smelters near its existing refining operations in Indonesia.

The US$3 billion facility in Gresik, East Java, will have a capacity of 1,7 million tonnes of copper concentrate and is expected to start operations in late 2023 or early 2024.

Freeport’s adjusted net income attributable to common stock was US$1,3 billion, or 89 cents per share, in the third quarter ended September 30, 2021 compared with US$430 million, or 29 US cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average had estimated a profit of 81 cents per share, according to Refinitiv IBES data. — Reuters