Earnings Per Share (Unaudited) (Details) (USD $) In Millions, except Per Share data, unless otherwise specified	3 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2013	Mar. 31, 2012
Earnings Per Share [Abstract]
Net income	$ 824	$ 1,001
Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests	(176)	(237)
Net income attributable to FCX common stockholders	$ 648	$ 764
Weighted-average shares of common stock outstanding	950	949
Add stock issuable upon exercise or vesting of:
Incremental common shares (in shares)	3	6	[1]
Weighted-average shares of common stock outstanding for purposes of calculating diluted net income per share (in shares)	953	955
Diluted net income per share attributable to FCX common stockholders (in dollars per share)	$ 0.68	$ 0.80
Potential anti-dilutive additional shares of common stock (in shares)		3
Outstanding stock options with exercise prices greater than average market price of common stock	29	9
Weighted-average exercise price of outstanding stock options not in-the-money	$ 41.35	$ 50.63

[1] Excluded shares of common stock associated with outstanding stock options with exercise prices less than the average market price of FCX's common stock that were anti-dilutive based on the treasury stock method of approximately three million for first-quarter 2012.