Metals Winners & Losers: Freeport McMoRan

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Metals and mining stocks paced the broader equities sell-off Monday as slower-than-expected GDP growth out of Japan heightened concerns about the prospects of a global economic rebound, and commodities prices dipped in response.

The losses Monday come two sessions after the metallurgic sector rose sharply on positive economic data out of France and Germany. The volatile moves underscore the schizophrenic nature of the markets here in the liminal economic territory of possible recovery, possible double-dip.

Investors, at any rate, sold off commodities as well as metal-related stocks in force during the session, fleeing to less cyclical plays.

Copper and gold concern Freeport McMoRan(FCX) was among the leading decliners. Its shares lost $4.30, or 6.7%, to reach $59.63.

The company has been plagued of late with violence at its enormous Grasberg mine in Papua, Indonesia. The latest incident occurred Sunday, when gunmen shot up a bus near the Grasberg complex -- five were injured -- which follows other shootings in recent weeks that officials have attributed to a Papuan separatist group. The Grasberg mine has been hotly criticized in the past for its pollution.

That wasn't the end of it for Freeport. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- where the company operates the Tenke Fungurume project, a huge copper and cobalt mine -- the government arrested three Freeport employees, alleging they had used a work-permit and visa scam to extort millions of dollars in public funds.

Freeport said it's cooperating with the Congolese, and pursuing its own investigation, but questions remain.