Revenue Recognition Accounting Policy
FCX sells its products pursuant to sales contracts entered into with its customers. Revenue for all FCX's products is recognized when title and risk of loss pass to the customer and when collectibility is reasonably assured. The passing of title and risk of loss to the customer are based on terms of the sales contract, generally upon shipment or delivery of product.
Revenues from FCX's concentrate and cathode sales are recorded based on a provisional sales price or a final sales price calculated in accordance with the terms specified in the relevant sales contract. Revenues from concentrate sales are recorded net of treatment and all refining charges (including price participation, if applicable, as discussed below) and the impact of derivative contracts. Moreover, because a portion of the metals contained in copper concentrates is unrecoverable as a result of the smelting process, FCX's revenues from concentrate sales are also recorded net of allowances based on the quantity and value of these unrecoverable metals. These allowances are a negotiated term of FCX's contracts and vary by customer. Treatment and refining charges represent payments or price adjustments to smelters and refiners and are either fixed or, in certain cases, vary with the price of copper (referred to as price participation).
Under the long-established structure of sales agreements prevalent in the industry, copper contained in concentrates and cathodes is generally provisionally priced at the time of shipment. The provisional prices are finalized in a specified future month (generally one to four months from the shipment date) based on quoted monthly average spot copper prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) or the New York Mercantile Exchange (COMEX). FCX receives market prices based on prices in the specified future month, which results in price fluctuations recorded to revenues until the date of settlement. FCX records revenues and invoices customers at the time of shipment based on then-current LME or COMEX prices, which results in an embedded derivative (i.e., a pricing mechanism that is finalized after the time of delivery) that is required to be bifurcated from the host contract. The host contract is the sale of the metals contained in the concentrates or cathodes at the then-current LME or COMEX price. FCX applies the normal purchases and normal sales scope exception in accordance with derivatives and hedge accounting guidance to the host contract in its concentrate or cathode sales agreements since these contracts do not allow for net settlement and always result in physical delivery. The embedded derivative does not qualify for hedge accounting and is adjusted to fair value through earnings each period, using the period-end forward prices, until the date of final pricing. At December 31, 2011, FCX had outstanding provisionally priced copper sales from its copper mining operations of 252 million pounds of copper (net of noncontrolling interests), priced at an average of $3.44 per pound, subject to final pricing over the first several months of 2012 pursuant to the terms of the sales contracts.
Gold sales are priced according to individual contract terms, generally the average London Bullion Market Association price for a specified month near the month of shipment.
Substantially all of FCX's 2011 molybdenum sales were priced based on prices published in Metals Week, Ryan's Notes or Metal Bulletin, plus conversion premiums for products that undergo additional processing, such as ferromolybdenum and molybdenum chemical products. The majority of these sales use the average price of the previous month quoted by the applicable publication. FCX's remaining molybdenum sales generally have pricing that is either based on a fixed price or adjusts within certain price ranges.
PT Freeport Indonesia concentrate sales and Tenke Fungurume Mining S.A.R.L. (TFM) metal sales are subject to certain royalties, which are recorded as a reduction to revenues.
Source: Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., Annual Report
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