Freeport-McMoRan produced 987 million pounds of metal in the third quarter, with the output falling short of the 1 billion pounds average estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg.
Copper prices jumped to a new high last week as stockpiles hit a 47-year low.
On-warrant copper stocks in LME-registered warehouses at 18,250 tonnes remain near multi-decade lows.
Exchange stocks represent a fraction of available material and sudden tightness on the LME does not reflect the wider market, said Julius Baer analyst Carsten Menke.
“We are seeing a loosening in the copper market,” he said, pointing to rising mine and scrap supply and slowing demand in China, which is suffering power shortages and weakening economic growth.
“Prices should be lower at the end of the year,”
(With files from Reuters and Bloomberg)
