Miguel Palacios Bids Farewell to Company

August 4, 2026 - Miguel Palacios recalled a breakroom conversation with Kathleen Quirk that captured his approach to work during more than four decades with the company.

Palacios was in the midst of his tenure as Vice President-North America Smelting and Refining with responsibility for the company’s Miami and El Paso operations several years back when he encountered Quirk, now the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

“One day, Kathleen asked me what I was doing in Miami because things were running so well," Palacios said of the conversation that took place at the company’s Hub in Phoenix. "My response was that any good results in Miami were due to a great team there, competent and highly motivated.”

It’s his former colleagues, the people with whom he shared every professional success and challenge, that Palacios speaks about first when recalling the highlights of his years spent with Atlantic Copper and Freeport. Palacios retired this summer following a career that took him from a young metallurgist in Spain to leadership roles across Freeport's global smelting and refining operations.

Reflecting on Retirement

"It feels a little bit strange," Palacios said just days after retirement. "It's a contradictory feeling. After 44 years in business and 42 with the company, it's difficult to imagine not being part of it every day."

Palacios joined Atlantic Copper in 1984 as a process engineer and metallurgist. Within a few years, he was promoted to smelter superintendent, beginning a steady progression through increasingly senior leadership roles. He later served as Technology Director before becoming Senior Vice President of Atlantic Copper's operation in Huelva, Spain.

His career expanded beyond Spain in 2019 when he accepted an assignment to lead Freeport's Miami smelter and El Paso refinery operations through a period of transition.

"They asked if I needed a few days to think about it," Palacios recalled. "I said no. If the company believes I can provide the best service there, I'm ready."

With that, Palacios and his wife, Esperanza Morillo León, who worked in Atlantic Copper’s communications department and later accepted a role in Freeport’s communications department in Phoenix, were off to Arizona.

During his tenure in the U.S., the smelter operations underwent significant improvements, including modernization and initiatives focused on reliability, workplace conditions and employee engagement.

Besides improving technical aspects and identifying critical investments for Miami and El Paso, Palacios also addressed what some might call the softer parts of the business: tidiness and cleanliness, maintenance, new paint and comfortable common work areas. Working in a pleasant environment, Palacios believed, carries a significant motivating effect and fosters a sense of pride in belonging.

"When people feel proud of where they work, things begin to change," he said. "Before we had time to invest in major projects, production and availability were already improving."

Return to Spain

With the Miami and El Paso operations back on solid footing, Palacios and Morillo León headed back to Atlantic Copper in 2022, Palacios as Senior Vice President of Business Development and Morillo León as Director of Communications.

Once back in Spain, Palacios also played a key role in the Manyar Project, PT Freeport Indonesia’s new smelter and refinery complex. His involvement spanned the full project lifecycle, from process selection and site evaluation through basic design and detailed engineering. During commissioning in 2024 and 2025, he devoted most of his time to the project, while also leading Atlantic Copper’s senior technical team.

With his work at the new smelter winding down, Palacios was able to follow Morillo León, who had retired in 2024, into the next chapter of their lives.

For both, retirement may mean not reporting to work each day, but it doesn’t mean resting idle either. Morillo León is active in local theater, while Palacios plans to immerse himself in his longtime hobbies of reading and photography while taking on a long-postponed goal of completing his doctorate from the University of Seville, where he earned his master’s degree in chemical engineering in 1982.

As he turns the page on his Freeport career, Palacios is heartened by the calls and emails he has received from a countless number of colleagues whom he has mentored and learned from. His outgoing message to the next generation of employees isn’t as much about hard skills and business acumen; it is taking a sincere interest in those around you, showing you care about their success as much as you do your own.

"I've known many brilliant people who never reached their full potential because they didn't understand the role of people," he said. "My advice is simple: stay focused on people, your bosses, your peers, the people who work for you. In my case, that was the key to everything I accomplished."

Photo (bottom): Miguel Palacios and his wife, Esperanza Morillo León, spend much of their time in Huelva, Spain, on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.